Quotes About Materialism

The minute you hear a sermon on materialism, you're glad somebody else is there to hear it.

The kingdom of self tends to be more focused on what the hands can touch than what the heart should embrace.

Our obsession with material things brings trouble and heartache into our lives. So we tell ourselves that we'll do better—we commit ourselves for a time to new budgets, we go on temporary diets, we hold garage sales. But none of it lasts for long because deep inside us, we treasure the creation more than we treasure the Creator.

I am designed to appreciate beautiful things, but I must not attach my identity to how many of those things I possess, and I must not let my heart be ruled by

because we are self-focused, we tend to be scorekeepers, constantly comparing our piles of stuff to the piles of others. It's a life of discontentment and envy. Envy is always selfish.

Your heart will never be satisfied in things. No, your heart will be satisfied only in the Giver of the things. If you seek happiness, happiness will elude you.

For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his own soul?" (Mark 8:36).

Our affluence does not make us selfish; it simply enables us to afford more sophisticated expressions of selfishness.

At the end of the day, what do you long for: for God's grace to do its work or for more of the stuff that this physical created world has to offer?

He reminds us not to live for the treasures of the moment:

Vol minachting keek hij naar al die waterhoofden waarin de slogans en gemeenplaatsen van een ten dode opgeschreven Systeem als kikkerdril samenklonterden en ronddreven. Naar die voortbrengers niet van de denkende, fijngevoelige, gecultiveerde, vrijheidslievende en schoonheidminnende mens, maar de van alle soorten banaalste en vulgairste: de Koopkrachtige Mens, de modale zaterdagmiddagklant van de Supermarkt. Wie niet kocht, bestond niet.

Even without the constant bombardment to reach for more wealth, 'just enough' can still sound like a weak counter-narrative to 'keep striving for more'. But even if it appears boring to accept that you (may) have enough wealth already, it can also be tremendously liberating. Once you have enough money to afford the basic things you want in life, you can stop constantly worrying.

Avarice is fear sheathed in gold.

The constant pursuit of material possessions/money status or sexual relationships, and so on, can be problematic.

This materialistic and competitive striving and needing 'to have and own' has been linked to deteriorating mental health, especially in young people.16

Radix omnium malorum est cupiditas.

Success is how other people judge you," he said. "Are you driving that Ferrari, buying that house in Aspen? Excellence can't be measured in dollars. Ideals don't fit into a bank account. It's about judging yourself. Have you lived up to your principles or have you sold out?

When you first get money, you buy all these things so no one thinks you're mean, and you spread it around. You get a chauffeur and you find yourself thrown around the back of this car and you think, I was happier when I had my own little car! I could drive myself!

Somebody said to me, 'But the Beatles were anti-materialistic.' That's a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, 'Now, let's write a swimming pool.

Buy, buy, says the sign in the shop window; Why, why, says the junk in the yard.

Having without having: it's possible, isn't it, that that's worse than not having at all?

There's something impoverished in those who want to really have everything.

The real danger from advertising is that it helps to shatter and ultimately destroy our most precious non-material possessions the confidence in the existence of meaningful purposes of human activity and respect for the integrity of man.

Recognise the difference between having and living.