Quotessence
Home / Topics / Consumerism Quotes

Consumerism Quotes

Browse 640 quotes about Consumerism.

Related topics

OverconsumptionPeopleThinkingWorldIfsConsumersWantNeedsWayMenConsumptionCultureCapitalismGivingPoorRichDesireEconomyEnoughHumansKnowsAdvertisingAmericaMaterialismProductsValuesWealthGoodsLongMadeHas BeensIdeasPossessionSelfTwoCountryDemandDoeMaterialsPovertyShouldTelevisionCharacterChildrenEndsEnvironmentFirstsMightPersonsShoppingSoulTodayWellsArtBelieveCareChristianEarthEnvironmentalFeelsHappinessHeartHouseImportantLittlesLooksMassMayMeanProblemRealityRichesSimpleUsedWasteWish

Consumerism Quotes

“consumption can be very harmful to the world. I'm not a big proponent of the idea that consumption makes you morally bad, but there are consequences to our acts, and those consequences are environmental degradation and the huge social inequalities that make our standard of living in the United States possible.”

WorldIdeasStatesBigsSocialUnitedUnited StatesHugeStandardsConsequenceEnvironmentalInequalityConsumptionConsumerismDegradationStandards Of LivingEnvironmental DegradationSocial Inequality
Author:Judith Levine
Create image

“Parents have railed against shelters near schools, but no one has made any connection between the crazed consumerism of our kids and their elders' cold unconcern toward others. Maybe the homeless are not the only ones who need to spend time in these places to thaw out.”

NeedsMadeKidsSchoolValuesParentColdConnectionsShelterConsumerismHomelessEnd TimesEldersSpend TimeMeanness
Book:Thinking Out Loud: On the Personal, the Political, the Public and the Private
Create image

“It's about learning your craft. That's a wonderful thing--especially with today's consumerism and instant gratification. You can'tbuy that. It's about making decisions, corrections, choices. I don't think it's so much about becoming a tennis player. It's about becoming a person.”

ThinkingPersonsTodayChoicesDecisionPlayerWonderfulBecomingCraftsInstantTennisConsumerismWonderful ThingsGratificationCorrectionsMaking DecisionsTennis PlayerInstant Gratification
Author:Billie Jean King
Create image

“Under the Obama regime, the president and his allies are intentional in pursuing these conflicts from the perspective that you must sacrifice your most sacred beliefs to government the instant you start a business. You have the protection of the First Amendment as an individual, you see – but the instant you start a business, you lose those protections.”

FirstsGovernmentReligionPoliticsIndividualBeliefEnergyPresidentLosesWorkSacrificePolicyHealthPerspectiveConflictEthicsCapitalismSacredHuman RightsProtectionIdeologyInstantAlliesRegimesAmendmentsConsumerismFirst Amendment
Author:Bobby Jindal
Create image

“It is a law of nature that everything run by the government will get more expensive and worse over time. Everything run by the private sector will get better and cheaper over time. The fact that [Obamacare] starts this badly does not bode well....We want healthcare run on the same system that gave us cell phones, flat screens, Jerry Garcia chia pets. Everything you submit to the free market...keeps getting better and better.”

WantWellsDoeFactsRealityGovernmentRunningLawPoliticalPoliticsMoneyPartyHistoryTechnologyDemocracyHuman NatureHealthCapitalismPhonesScreensIdeologyCellsGet BetterExpensivePetFlatsHealthcareSubmitConsumerismPolitical PartiesFree MarketLaws Of NatureCell PhoneObamacareCheaperPrivate SectorJerry
Author:Ann Coulter
Create image

“We must act now and wake up to our moral obligations. The poor and vulnerable are members of God's family and are the most severely affected by droughts, high temperatures, the flooding of coastal cities, and more severe and unpredictable weather events resulting from climate change. We, who should have been responsible stewards preserving our vulnerable, fragile planet home, have been wantonly wasteful through our reckless consumerism, devouring irreplaceable natural resources.”

ShouldHas BeensHomeNaturalPoorCitiesMoralEventsPlanetsMembersResourcesShould HaveWake UpResponsibleClimateEnvironmentalClimate ChangeObligationWeatherVulnerableAffectedFragileSustainabilityConsumerismSevereUnpredictableTemperatureRecklessShould Have BeenNatural ResourcesDroughtStewardsIrreplaceableFloodingMoral ObligationDevouringCoastalPoor And Vulnerable
Author:Desmond Tutu
Create image

“Our society is falling back increasingly on rampant consumerism and self-promoting social media as a way for people to feel that their lives matter - self-centered means of numbing the questions of mattering. Culture has relapsed back into the self-aggrandizing, glorifying answers that the Athenians had presumed, which had Socrates railing against them until he got so annoying that they killed him.”

PeopleWayFeelsMeanSelfMatterFallCultureSocialAnswersMediaSocial MediaOur SocietyAnnoyingConsumerismPromotingSelf CenteredNumbingAthenians
Author:Rebecca Goldstein
Create image

“A large percentage of those living in developed societies are told what brand of soda they should drink, what cigarettes they should smoke, what clothes and shoes they should wear, what they should eat and what brand of food they should buy. Their political ideas are supplied in the same way. Every year a trillion dollars is spent on advertising.”

WayShouldYearsIdeasPoliticalDrinkClothesDollarsShoesAdvertisingBrandsSmokeCigaretteConsumerismPercentagesOverconsumptionSodaClothes And Shoes
Book:War, Racism and Economic Injustice: The Global Ravages of Capitalism
Create image

“All left-wing parties in the highly industrialized countries are at bottom a sham, because they make it their business to fight against something which they do not really wish to destroy. They have internationalist aims, and at the same time they struggle to keep up a standard of life with which those aims are incompatible. We all live by robbing Asiatic coolies, and those of us who are 'enlightened' all maintain that those coolies ought to be set free; but our standard of living, and hence our 'enlightenment,' demands that the robbery shall continue.”

CountryFightingLeftWishPartyStruggleOughtDemandStandardsEnlightenmentAimWingsBottomEnlightenedLive ByConsumerismOverconsumptionStandards Of LivingLeft WingRobberyRobbing
Book:The Orwell Reader: Fiction, Essays, and Reportage
Create image

“Can we reasonably expect happiness from an insatiable appetite which, no matter how it stuffs its belly, is still psychologically like Oliver Twist in the poorhouse, holding up an empty bowl and begging, "I want some more"? Isn't it possible that our dream of the good society contained, from the beginning, a hidden violation of the Tenth Commandment "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor's goods"?”

WantStillsMatterDreamStuffEmptyNeighborGoodsAppetiteBowlsCommandmentsConsumerismBellyOur DreamsTwistsViolationBeggingOverconsumptionInsatiableOliver Twist
Book:Smoke on the Mountain: An Interpretation of the Ten Commandments
Create image

“Consumer sales depend on the habits and behaviors of consumers, and those who manipulate consumer markets cannot but address behavior and attitude. That is presumably the object of the multibillion-dollar global advertising industry. Tea drinkers are improbable prospects for Coke sales.”

AttitudeObjectsDependsIndustryHabitBehaviorDollarsAdvertisingTeaConsumersAddressesConsumerismManipulateCokeProspectsOverconsumptionImprobableDrinkersBehavior And AttitudeAdvertising Industry
Book:Jihad vs. McWorld: Terrorism's Challenge to Democracy
Create image

“If we were built, what were we built for? ... Why do we have this amazing collection of sinews, senses, and sensibilities? Were we really designed in order to recline on the couch, extending our wrists perpendicular to the floor so we can flick through the television's offerings? Were we really designed in order to shop some more so the economy can grow some more? Or were we designed to experience the great epiphanies that come from contact with each other and with the natural world?”

IfsWorldOrderGrowsNaturalEconomyTelevisionBuiltSensesContactCollectionsShopsOfferingSensibilityConsumerismNatural WorldCouchesWristsEpiphanyOverconsumptionExtending
Author:Bill McKibben
Create image

“In the name of economy a thousand wasteful devices would be invented; and in the name of efficiency new forms of mechanical time-wasting would be devised: both processes gained speed through the nineteenth century and have come close to the limit of extravagant futility in our own time. But labor-saving devices could only achieve their end-that of freeing mankind for higher functions-if the standard of living remained stable. The dogma of increasing wants nullified every real economy and set the community in a collective squirrel-cage.”

IfsWantRealEndsWould BeFormNamesProcessCommunityEconomyAchieveMankindCenturyHigherThousandLimitsStandardsLaborFunctionSpeedSavingCollectivesDevicesWasting TimeStableDogmaEfficiencyConsumerismCagesNineteenth CenturyFutilityOverconsumptionExtravagantStandards Of LivingSquirrels
Author:Lewis Mumford
Create image

“In this state of total consumerism-which is to say a state of helpless dependence on things and services and ideas and motives that we have forgotten how to provide ourselves-all meaningful contact between ourselves and the earth is broken. We do not understand the earth in terms either of what it offers us or of what it requires of us, and I think it is the rule that people inevitably destroy what they do not understand.”

PeopleThinkingIdeasStatesEarthTermBrokenOffersForgottenMeaningfulContactMotiveConsumerismHelplessDependenceOverconsumption
Book:The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays of Wendell Berry
Create image

“Man today is fascinated by the possibility of buying, more, better, and especially, new things. He is consumption hungry... To buy the latest gadget, the latest model of anything that is on the market, is the dream of everybody, in comparison to which the real pleasure in use is quite secondary. Modern man, if the dared to be articulate about his concept of heaven, would describe a vision which would look like the biggest department store in the world.”

IfsMenWorldLooksRealUseDreamTodayHeavenPleasureVisionModernPossibilityModelsConceptsStoresHungryBuyingDepartmentComparisonFascinatedNew ThingsConsumptionConsumerismDeep ThoughtOverconsumptionGadgetsModern ManDepartment StoresArticulating
Author:Erich Fromm
Create image

“The effect of the post-Enlightenment project for human society is that all human activity is absorbed into labor. It becomes an unending cycle of production for the sake of consumption. The modern concept of "built-in obsolescence" makes this clear. The cycle of production and consumption has to be kept going, and the work of the artist or craftsman who aims to create something enduring becomes marginal to the economic order.”

HumansArtistOrderClearEconomicModernEffectsActivityProjectsEnlightenmentConceptsBuiltLaborAimEndureSakeProductionsPostsCyclesConsumptionConsumerismHuman SocietyOverconsumptionHuman ActivityUnendingCraftsmanObsolescenceEconomic Order
Author:Lesslie Newbigin
Create image

“To the extent that we consume, in our present circumstances, we are guilty. To the extent that we guilty consumers are conservationists, we are absurd. But what can we do? Must we go on writing letters to politicians and donating to conservation organizations until the majority of our fellow citizens agree with us? Or can we do something directly to solve our share of the problem? I am a conservationist. I believe wholeheartedly in putting pressure on the politicians and in maintaining the conservation organizations.”

WritingBelieveProblemI BelieveShareGoes OnCitizensPoliticianCircumstancesLettersOrganizationPressureAgreeFellowsMajoritySolveAbsurdGuiltyConsumersConsumerismConservationMaintainingOverconsumptionWholeheartedly
Author:Wendell Berry
Create image

“Too much of the world's happiness depends on taking from one to satisfy another. To increase my standard of living, someone in another part of the world must lower his. The worldwide crisis of hunger that we face today is a result of that method of pursuing happiness. Industrialized nations acquire appetites for more and more luxuries and higher and higher standards of living, and increasing numbers of people are made poor and hungry. It doesn't have to be that way.”

PeopleWorldWayMadeTodayFacesNationsPoorResultsNumbersToo MuchDependsHigherStandardsIncreaseCrisisMethodHungerHungryLuxuryAcquireAppetiteConsumerismOverconsumptionStandards Of LivingHigher StandardsPursuing Happiness
Book:A Long Obedience in the Same Direction: Discipleship in an Instant Society
Create image

“We used to say I don't care if I never have any money As long as I have my sweet honey and a shack in the woodland Now we say I don't care if I don't have money, but it's not true We can't live without money, no, because we don't want to We want one of those and two of those, and oh that one looks neat, wrap it up Put it on my MasterCard. Put it on my Visa And I sing it now, hey hey, hey hey, who woulda thunk it Hey hey, hey hey, who woulda thunk it.”

IfsWantLooksLongTwoCareUsedSweetDon't CareHeyI Don't CareHoneyConsumerismWrapsNeatOverconsumptionVisaShackWoodlandSweet Honey
Author:Greg Brown
Create image

“What can become of him if he is in such bondage to the habit of satisfying the innumerable desires he has created for himself? He is isolated, and what concern has he with the rest of humanity? They have succeeded in accumulating a greater mass of objects, but the joy in the world has grown less.”

IfsWorldJoyDesireHumanityGreaterObjectsHabitMassConcernSatisfyingIsolatedConsumerismBondageOverconsumption
Book:The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)
Create image

“What does a man need - really need? A few pounds of food each day, heat and shelter, six feet to lie down in - and some form of working activity that will yield a sense of accomplishment. That's all - in the material sense, and we know it. But we are brainwashed by our economic system until we end up in a tomb beneath a pyramid of time payments, mortgages, preposterous gadgetry, playthings that divert our attention from the sheer idiocy of the charade. The years thunder by.”

KnowsNeedsYearsPersonsDoeEndsFormLyingAttentionFeetEconomicMaterialsActivitySixAccomplishmentHeatEach DayPoundsYieldShelterSheerConsumerismThunderPaymentTombsMortgagePyramidsOverconsumptionEconomic SystemsBrainwashedIdiocySense Of AccomplishmentCharades
Author:Sterling Hayden
Create image

“What is the chief end of man?-to get rich. In what way?-dishonestly if we can; honestly if we must. Who is God, the one and only true? Money is God. Gold and Greenbacks and Stock-father, son, and ghosts of same, three persons in one; These are the true and only God, mighty and supreme.”

IfsMenWayPersonsEndsThreeFatherRichSonGoldHonestlySupremeGhostChiefsConsumerismGet RichOverconsumptionFather Son
Book:Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays: 1852-1890
Create image

“When I lost my faith in people I put my trust in things To avoid the disappointment Trusting people brings... I tried to do it all myself then Surrounded by my stuff All I found were limitations I could not rise above There are gadgets and contraptions Immaculate machines There's a program you can download now That will even dream your dreams It'll even dream you dreams For a monthly fee Clear up your complexion You get a hundred hours free Possessions cannot save you.”

PeopleDreamFoundLostStuffHoursClearHundredProgramMachinesDisappointmentPossessionLimitationYour DreamsConsumerismRise AboveFeesOverconsumptionGadgetsDownloadsComplexionImmaculateTrusting People
Author:John Gorka
Create image

“The illusion that mechanical progress means human improvement ... alienates us from our own being and our own reality. It is precisely because we are convinced that our life, as such, is better if we have a better car, a better TV set, better toothpaste, etc., that we condemn and destroy our own reality and the reality of our natural resources. Technology was made for man, not man for technology. In losing touch with being and thus with God, we have fallen into a senseless idolatry of production and consumption for their own sakes.”

IfsMenHumansMeanMadeRealityNaturalTechnologyOur LivesProgressCarTvsLosingIllusionResourcesSakeProductionsConvincedImprovementFallenEtcConsumptionConsumerismIdolatryNatural ResourcesOverconsumptionToothpaste
Book:Seeds
Create image

“Based on technological research and the transformation of nature, industrialization constantly goes forward, giving proof of incessant creativity. While certain enterprises develop and are concentrated, others die or change their location. Thus new social problems are created: professional or regional unemployment, redeployment and mobility of persons, permanent adaptation of workers and disparity of conditions in the different branches of industry.”

GivingPersonsDifferentProblemCertainDiesSocialCreativityConditionsIndustryResearchTransformationWorkersProofPermanentBranchesEnterpriseConsumerismTechnologicalLocationUnemploymentAdaptationOverconsumptionMobilityIncessantDisparitySocial ProblemsIndustrialization
Author:Pope Paul VI
Create image

“Before our eyes we have the results of ideologies such as Marxism, Nazism and fascism, and also of myths like racial superiority, nationalism and ethnic exclusivism. No less pernicious, though not always as obvious, are the effects of materialistic consumerism, in which the exaltation of the individual and the selfish satisfaction of personal aspirations become the ultimate goal of life. In this outlook, the negative effects on others are considered completely irrelevant.”

EyeIndividualGoalResultsEffectsNegativeUltimateSatisfactionObviousMythSelfishIdeologyAspirationNationalismFascismConsumerismSuperiorityIrrelevantOutlookMarxismMaterialisticLife GoalNazismOverconsumptionUltimate GoalPerniciousExaltation
Author:Pope John Paul II
Create image

“I understand that it's the music that keeps me alive... That's my lifeblood. And to give that up for, like, the TV, the cars, the houses - that's not the American dream. That's the booby prize, in the end. Those are the booby prizes. And if you fall for them - if, when you achieve them, you believe that this is the end in and of itself - then you've been suckered in. Because those are the consolation prizes, if you're not careful, for selling yourself out, or letting the best of yourself slip away.”

IfsGivingBelieveEndsDreamFallHouseAliveAchieveCarTvsCarefulSellingPrizeSlipsAmerican DreamConsumerismConsolationOverconsumptionConsolation PrizeSelling Yourself
Author:Bruce Springsteen
Create image

“In the current economic situation, the temptation for the more dynamic economies is that of chasing after advantageous alliances that, nevertheless, can have harmful effects for poorer states, prolonging situations of extreme mass poverty of men and women and using up the earth's natural resources, entrusted to man by God the Creator-as Genesis says-that he might cultivate and protect it.”

MenStatesMightEarthNaturalSituationPovertyEconomyEconomicEffectsProtectMassMen And WomenResourcesCurrentsCreatorExtremesTemptationNeverthelessConsumerismChasingAlliancesGenesisNatural ResourcesOverconsumptionProlonging
Author:Pope Benedict XVI
Create image

“It was with the Industrial Revolution, as society plunged ever more eagerly into the conquest of material riches and bent all its energies to the accumulation of goods, that material poverty became a major problem. Obviously, this meant abandonment or downgrading of spiritual values, virtue, etc. To share or not to share in the increase of the collective wealth-this was the Number One question. It was the desire to acquire wealth that prompted the poor to start fighting.”

ProblemSpiritualDesireValuesFightingEnergyWealthPoorNumbersPovertyVirtueShareMaterialsRevolutionMajorsIncreaseRichesAcquireEtcCollectivesGoodsConsumerismBentConquestAbandonmentAccumulationOverconsumptionIndustrial RevolutionMajor ProblemsSpiritual ValuesDowngrading
Author:Jacques Ellul
Create image