Quotes About Materialism

Will the prized treasures of to-day always be the cheap trifles of the day before?  Will rows of our willow-pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the chimneypieces of the great in the years 2000 and odd?  Will the white cups with the gold rim and the beautiful gold flower inside (species unknown), that our Sarah Janes now break in sheer light-heartedness of spirit, be carefully mended, and stood upon a bracket, and dusted only by the lady of the house? China

Ah, those foolish days, those foolish days when we were unselfish and pure-minded; those foolish days when our simple hearts were full of truth, and faith, and reverence! Ah, those foolish days of noble longings and of noble strivings! And oh, these wise, clever days when we know that money is the only prize worth striving for, when we believe in nothing else but meanness and lies, when we care for no living creature but ourselves!

No, what was sad in his case was that he, who didn't care for carved oak, should have his drawing-room panelled with it, while people who do care for it have to pay enormous prices to get it.  It seems to be the rule of this world. 

How many people, on that voyage, load up the boat till it is ever in danger of swamping with a store of foolish things which they think essential to the pleasure and comfort of the trip, but which are really only useless lumber.

When you own nothing, it's easy to let things go.

When you own nothing, it's easy to let things go.

Os hospitais tentam vender centros de parto, os infantários vendem amor, as escolas vendem sucesso... os vendedores de carros promovem o luxo, os conselheiros a autoestima, as massagistas oferecem finais felizes, os cemitérios anunciam o repouso eterno... É interminável, esta febre de vender, promover, exaltar - constante, esgotante, e implacável como a morte.

This was the crazy thing about wealth: You only had it if you didn't use it, but if you didn't use it, there was no value in having it.

that in spite of living in a mansion an American is not above wearing a pair of secondhand pants, bought for fifty cents.

She prefers books to jewels and saris. She believes as I do.

She prefers books to jewels and saris.

Anything that makes us forget who we are and what we want; that way we can work in order to produce, reproduce, and earn money.

If you live for money, no amount will ever satisfy you.

If money's the god people worship, I'd rather go worship the devil instead.

The desire to get money through jobs enslaves us

With the computer and stuff, the difference between a rich guy and a poor guy, to me, is nothing. Because I don't like big houses, I don't drive a car, so you know, I just live in a small apartment and I have my computer, which is really cool.

I'm not materialistic. I love clothes and all that stuff, but I don't need it to live.

The more storage you have, the more stuff you accumulate.

I don't live for stuff and things, and if I had to live in a cardboard box, I would put curtains on it.

As human beings, we're very materialistic and have all this stuff - furs and cars and diamonds and money.

There is an attitude that we should be able to have everything. No, you shouldn't be able to have anything. I'd like a helicopter, but I can't afford a helicopter, so I don't buy one. People are buying stuff they can't afford on credit. I bought my Ford hybrid with cash.

Our material eye cannot see that a stupid chauvinism is driving us from one noisy, destructive, futile agitation to another.

Beware lest you lose the substance by grasping at the shadow.

A short cut to riches is to subtract from our desires.