Quotes About Materialism

There are plenty of people out there talking about how difficult it is for some of us to just deal with all the stuff we already have, from packed closets that need organizers to storage spaces to maintenance costs, etc. Lots of people are reevaluating whether or not they need giant garages full of stuff and finding that they don't.

The older I get, the less I obsess about material stuff. In fact, stuff has become the enemy. There always seems to be more of it than I have storage in my house!

If I go to the department store, I get no excitement: I can buy the entire department store instead of one bag. So I lost excitement of shopping.

Gadgets are usually the last thing I think about, and if there's something new, I'll get to the store for the final shipment of the first generation when it's on sale. So I have last year's stuff.

Each time you go to the grocery store with your kids, it is a potential learning opportunity. In order not to overemphasize materialism, focus on other things to do with money. In 'Beyond the Lemonade Stand,' I try to emphasize the importance of saving money, and of using it to help other people.

Don't go into any store that features shopping bags that can stand on their own accord in the middle of a table. This sort of shopping bag denotes prices that will start chipping into your children's college education fund. Avoid it.

I despise shopping and department stores.

I don't like going into stores, I don't like the whole process of buying things.

I used to say that stores were like museums. I appreciated it, I could look at it, but it really wasn't for me and I couldn't have it.

People are persuaded to spend money we don't have, on things we don't need, to create impressions that won't last, on people we don't care about.

There is not in the world a more ignoble character than the mere money-getting American, insensitive to every duty, regardless of every principle, bent only on amassing a fortune," Roosevelt said just before he became president.

I also have in mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters. —HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817–1862)

A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing."—Oscar Wilde

The things you own end up owning you." –Chuck Palahniuk American author, best known for Fight Club

He explained that he had spent more than 30 years with people he didn't like to buy things he didn't need. Life had become a succession of trophy wives—he was on lucky number three—expensive cars, and other empty bragging rights. Mark was one of the living dead. This is exactly where we don't want to end up.

No te daré la felicidad", y la colocaría fuera de un gran centro comercial o de un concesionario de coches. ¿Sabes cuál sería un proyecto divertido de verdad? Comprar miles de loros y enseñarles a decir: "No te dará la felicidad" y, luego, soltarlos por los centros comerciales y grandes superficies de todo el mundo. Ésa es mi misión en la vida. ¿Alguien más se apunta? Hagámoslo.»

Our sight is dimmed by the tyranny of the urgent, by the siren call of success, by the seductive beauty of physical things, by our inability to admit our own problems, and by the casual relationships within the body of Christ that we mistakenly call fellowship.

Great material progress has not been matched by great spiritual progress. Quite the opposite. Indeed, from this point of view perhaps man has never been so poor as since he became so rich. Letters against the war: Letter from the Himalayas, 2008.

In quelle condizioni era naturale essere depresso, come è naturale che lo sia per chiunque abbia ancora un'idea di quel che la vita potrebbe essere e non è. La depressione diventa un diritto, quando uno si guarda attorno e non vede niente o nessuno che lo ispiri, quando il mondo sembra scivolare via in una gora di ottusità e di grettezza materialista.

Most people live sad lives because they have they have succeeded in designing and perfecting a path to sorrow thinking they are building a road to happiness. I will be happy if I befriend or even marry this rich fool, if I buy this worthless tool, if I sit on this corrupted stool, if I drown and kill myself in a debt pool, if I wear this dirty wool, if I ride on this dangerous bull.

You can't own something unless you can swallow it

Advertising is - quite often - alive to our real needs. It's just the products on offer might not be the things that will help us satisfy them.

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz.

I don't really care about, Oh I really have to sell these things.