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Consumerism Quotes

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Consumerism Quotes

“Perhaps if we could popularise through the techniques of branding and consumerism, a different idea, a different narrative, perhaps the world can change. After all it changes constantly and incessantly, it's just the perceptions that we have are governed by people with self-interest and are not inalignment with the health and safety of us as individuals or as a planet.”

PeopleIfsWorldIdeasDifferentSelfIndividualInterestPlanetsPerceptionSafetyTechniqueNarrativeBrandingConsumerismSelf InterestIncessantlyDifferent IdeasHealth And Safety
Author:Russell Brand
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“Now, it’s true that some of the protesters are oddly dressed or have silly-sounding slogans, which is inevitable given the open character of the events. But so what? I, at least, am a lot more offended by the sight of exquisitely tailored plutocrats, who owe their continued wealth to government guarantees, whining that President Obama has said mean things about them than I am by the sight of ragtag young people denouncing consumerism.”

PeopleMeanSaidCharacterGovernmentYoungGivenPresidentWealthEventsSightSillyInevitableGuaranteesPresident ObamaConsumerismOffendedSlogansWhiningTailored
Author:Paul Krugman
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“The consumption society has made us feel that happiness lies in having things, and has failed to teach us the happiness of not having things.”

FeelsMadeHappinessLyingSimpleTeachSocietySimplicityTinyConsumersConsumptionConsumerismConsumingSimple LifeSimplifySimple ThingsMinimalismSimple LivingFrugalityFrugalMaking A LivingLiving A Simple LifeLiving A LieSimple Things In LifeTiny ThingsSimplifying LifeSimplifying Your LifeTiny Houses
Author:Elise M. Boulding
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“Comforts that were rare among our forefathers are now multiplied in factories and handed out wholesale; and indeed, nobody nowadays, so long as he is content to go without air, space, quiet, decency and good manners, need be without anything whatever that he wants; or at least a reasonably cheap imitation of it.”

WantNeedsLongSpaceProgressAirComfortQuietMannersGood ManFactoriesConsumerismImitationCultDecencyOverconsumptionGood MannersForefathersWholesale
Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
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“Under private property, each tries to establish over the other an alien power, so as thereby to find satisfaction of his own selfish need. The increase in the quantity of objects is therefore accompanied by an extension of the realm of the alien powers to which man is subjected, and every new product represents a new potentiality of mutual swindling and mutual plundering.”

MenNeedsTryingPowerObjectsProductsIncreasePropertySatisfactionSelfishAliensRealmsMutualAssetsQuantityConsumerismExtensionsPrivate PropertyOverconsumptionNew ProductsSwindling
Book:Economic and philosophic manuscripts of 1844
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“Nature provides a free lunch, but only if we control our appetites.”

IfsNatureEnvironmentGreenEnvironmentalLunchAppetitePollutionConsumerismEcologyConservationOur EnvironmentMother EarthNatural EnvironmentNature And EnvironmentSave Mother EarthGreen EarthNature ConservationWorld EnvironmentGreen LivingSave The EnvironmentOne With NatureSave NatureConservingFree LunchEnvironmental PollutionEnergy ConservationSaving The EarthEnvironmental SustainabilityChanging EnvironmentConserving EnvironmentSaving EnergyPollution ControlHonest Tea
Author:William Ruckelshaus
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“In fast-moving, progress-conscious America, the consumer expects to be dizzied by progress. If he could completely understand advertising jargon he would be badly disappointed. The half-intelligibility which we expect, or even hope, to find in the latest product language personally reassures each of us that progress is being made: that the pace exceeds our ability to follow.”

IfsMadeWould BeAmericaMovingLanguageAbilityHalfProgressProductsConsciousAdvertisingConsumersDisappointedPaceConsumerismExceedOverconsumptionJargon
Author:Daniel J. Boorstin
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“With breathtaking rapidity, we are destroying all that was lovely to look at and turning America into a prison house of the spirit. The affluent society, with relentless single-minded energy, is turning our cities, most of suburbia and most of our roadways into the most affluent slum on earth.”

LooksEarthAmericaSpiritHouseEnergyCitiesPrisonLovelyDestroyingConsumerismRelentlessOverconsumptionSlumsAffluentBreathtakingSuburbia
Book:This is Eric Sevareid
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“Many ideas have struggled over the centuries to dominate the planet. Fascism. Communism. Democracy. Religion. But only one has achieved total supremacy. Its compulsive attractions rob its followers of reason and good sense. It has created unsustainable inequalities and threatened to tear apart the very fabric of society. More powerful than any religion, it has reached into every corner of the globe. It is consumerism”

IdeasReasonPowerfulVisionDemocracyCenturyTearsPlanetsFutureCornersAttractionInequalityCommunismFollowersFascismGlobesFabricConsumerismThreatenedGood SenseSupremacySustainable Development
Author:Jonathon Porritt
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“The great danger in today's world, pervaded as it is by consumerism, is the desolation and anguish born of a complacent yet covetous heart, the feverish pursuit of frivolous pleasures, and a blunted conscience. Whenever our interior life becomes caught up in its own interests and concerns, there is no longer room for others, no place for the poor.”

WorldHeartTodayInterestBornPleasurePoorRoomsDangerConscienceConcernCaughtPursuitConsumerismCaught UpInteriorsAnguishComplacentFrivolousDesolationToday's World
Book:The Spirit of St Francis: Inspiring Words on Faith, Love and Creation
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“In a nation that was proud of hard work, strong families, close-knit communities, and our faith in God, too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we've discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning. We've learned that piling up material goods cannot fill the emptiness of lives which have no confidence or purpose.”

HumansDoeSelfHardPurposeStrongNationsPresidentCommunityIdentityMaterialsHard WorkProudWorshipLongingDefinedEmptinessGoodsFaith In GodConsumptionConsumerismIndulgenceConsumingOverconsumptionSelf IndulgenceNo ConfidenceMalaiseStrong Family
Author:Jimmy Carter
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“Our task is to build cultural fortresses to protect our emerging nativeness. They must be strong enough to hold at bay the powers of consumerism, the powers of greed and envy and pride. One of the most effective ways for this to come about would be for our universities to assume the awesome responsibility to both validate and educate those who want to be homecomers -- not necessarily to go home but to go someplace and dig in and begin the long search and experiment to become native.”

WayWantLongEnoughHomeWould BeStrongResponsibilityPrideProtectTasksAssumingGreedUniversityEnvyExperimentsNativeEducateConsumerismStrong EnoughEmergingFortresses
Book:Becoming Native to This Place
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“This is what they have suppressed so long. This is why they are so afraid of the psychedelics, because they understand that once you touch the inner core of your own and someone else's being you can't be led into thing-fetishes and consumerism. The message of psychedelics is that culture can be re-engineered as a set of emotional values rather than products. This is terrifying news.”

LongValuesCultureEmotionalProductsMessagesNewsCoreConsumerismFetish
Author:Terence McKenna
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“The open frontier, the hardships of homesteading from scratch, the wealth of natural resources, the whole vast challenge of a continent waiting to be exploited, combined to produce a prevailing materialism and an American drive bent as much, if not more, on money, property, and power than was true of the Old World from which we had fled.”

IfsWorldWholeWaitingNaturalChallengesWealthMoneyProduceResourcesPropertyMaterialismHardshipContinentsConsumerismBentScratchesFrontiersNatural ResourcesPrevailingOverconsumptionOld WorldHomesteading
Book:Practicing History: Selected Essays
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“If thou art rich, thou art poor; for, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows, thou bearest thy heavy riches but a journey, and death unloads thee.”

IfsArtDeathPoorRichJourneyHeavyRichesAssTheeBowsConsumerismOverconsumptionMeasure For Measure
Book:The Complete Works of W. Shakspere: Illustrated with Many Valuable Literary Notes from Johnson, Steevens, Malone, Drake, Chalmers, Coleridge, Lamb, Schlegel, Hazlitt, Ch. Knight, and Other Distinguished Commentators with Large Introductory Notices Prefixed to Each Play ...
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“Our world, so we see and hear on all sides, is drowning in materialism, commercialism, consumerism. But the problem is not really there. What we ordinarily speak of as materialism is a result, not a cause. The root of materialism is a poverty of ideas about the inner and the outer world. Less and less does our contemporary culture have, or even seek, commerce with great ideas, and it is that lack that is weakening the human spirit. This is the essence of materialism. Materialism is a disease of the mind starved for ideas.”

WorldMindHumansDoeIdeasProblemSpiritCultureSpeakCausesSidesResultsPovertyDiseaseRootsEssenceContemporaryMaterialismOur WorldCommerceConsumerismHuman SpiritDrowningGreat IdeaWeakeningOuter WorldsCommercialism
Book:The American Soul: Rediscovering the Wisdom of the Founders
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