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Materialism Quotes

Browse 995 quotes about Materialism.

Materialism Quotes

“There is one advantage to having nothing, it never needs repair.”

Needs Advantage Materialism

Author:Frank A. Clark

“The son will run away from the family not at eighteen but at twelve, emancipated by his gluttonous precocity; he will fly not to seek heroic adventures, not to deliver a beautiful prisoner from a tower, not to immortalize a garret with sublime thoughts, but to found a business, to enrich himself and to compete with his infamous papa.”

Running Beautiful Found Adventure Son Materialism Prisoner Heroic Running Away Twelve Towers Sublime Eighteen Papa Infamous

Book:Intimate Journals

Source: Intimate Journals

“The organization controlling the material equipment of our everyday life is such that what in itself would enable us to construct it richly plunges us instead into a poverty of abundance, making alienation all the more intolerable as each convenience promises liberation and turns out to be only one more burden. We are condemned to slavery to the means of liberation.”

“Our life on earth is, and ought to be, material and carnal. But we have not yet learned to manage our materialism and carnality properly; they are still entangled with the desire for ownership.”

Stills Home Earth Desire House Our Lives Materials Ought Manage Materialism Ownership Carnality

Author:E. M. Forster

“I certainly understand that we're all trying to make a living, but I'm not thinking about that when I'm making it. And if that's your sole motivation, it's going to reflect that narcissistic greed and you're going to hear it in the music.”

Ifs Thinking Trying Motivation Greed Materialism Sole Narcissistic

Author:Aimee Mann

“We've been raised to compete, to want more! More! More! It's a way of life. It's about greed.”

Way Want Competition Raised Greed Materialism

Author:Sandy Duncan

“The lusts and greeds of the body scandalize the Soul; but it has to come to heel.”

Soul Body Greed Lust Materialism Heels Lust And Greed

Book:Afterthoughts

Source: Afterthoughts

“We need to move away from crass, consumption-driven materialism by de-materialising status”

Needs Moving Driven Materialism Consumption Crass

Author:Jonathon Porritt

“...the materialism of modern civilization is paradoxically founded on a hatred of materiality, a goal-oriented desire to obliterate all natural limits through technology, imposing an abstract grid over nature.”

Desire Goal Natural Technology Modern Civilization Limits Hatred Abstract Materialism Stewardship Imposing Grids Modern Civilization Goal Oriented Materiality

Author:Alan Watts

“Rather than ennobling the public mind and cementing the social fabric, applied science speedily became the chief weapon of a gross individualism, which was anathema to the frugal and righteous (John Quincy) Adams, the source of enormous fortunes divorced from duty, the instrument of unscrupulous ambition and rapacious materialism. Presently, it came to scar the very of the country which Adams loved, a disfiguring process uninterrupted since his day.”

Source: The Conservative Mind: From Burke to Eliot

“All human suffering springs from unbridled desire. Unless one extricates oneself from the clutch of greed, one will not free himself from the fetters of sorrow.”

Humans Desire Suffering Sorrow Spring Greed Oneself Materialism Clutch Fetters Human Suffering

Author:Velupillai Prabhakaran

“Materialism has cast man into such depths that a mighty concentration of forces is necessary to raise him again. He is subject to illnesses of the nervous system which are veritable epidemics of the life of the soul.”

Men Soul Force Subjects Raises Depth Casts Illness Nervous Concentration Materialism Epidemics Nervous System

Book:The Essential Rudolf Steiner

Source: The Essential Rudolf Steiner

“There is no easy way to create a world where men and women can live together... But if such a world is created in our lifetime, it will be done by rejecting the racism, materialism, and violence that has characterized Western civilization and especially by working toward a world of brotherhood, cooperation, and peace.”

Source: The Essential Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“If there is such a thing as spiritual materialism, it is displayed in the urge to possess the mountains rather than to unravel and accept their mysteries.”

Ifs Spiritual Accepting Mystery Mountain Urges Materialism Climbing

Author:Wojciech Kurtyka

“Australia's is a special kind of philistinism, an immovable materialism which puts art and ideas of any kind deliberately and firmly to one side to let the serious business of living proceed without distraction.”

Kind Art Ideas Sides Special Serious Architecture Australia Materialism Distraction Serious Business

Book:Artificial Australia

Source: Artificial Australia

“You want to buy cars and houses and castles, all of that's on you and how America has systematized your mind to be into materialism. Hip-hop ain't got nothing to do with that. I'm glad that anybody making money has picked themselves up - I just want them to give some of it back to the community.”

Want Giving Mind America House Community Car Hip Hop Glad Hips Making Money Hops Materialism Castles Makin Money

Author:Afrika Bambaataa

“American business needs a lifting purpose greater than the struggle of materialism.”

Needs Purpose Business Struggle Greater Materialism Lifting American Business

Book:The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933

Source: The Memoirs of Herbert Hoover: The Cabinet and the Presidency, 1920-1933

“Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself.”

Philosophy Forget Subjects Accounts Materialism

Book:The World as Will and Representation

Source: The World as Will and Representation

“Science keeps religion from sinking into the valley of crippling irrationalism and paralyzing obscurantism. Religion prevents science from falling into the marsh of obsolete materialism and moral nihilism.”

Fall Moral Materialism Valleys Nihilism Obsolete Sinking Marshes

Book:Strength to Love

Source: Strength to Love

“A materialistic person is ruthless with other people but kind to himself. A spiritual person is ruthless with himself but kind to everybody else.”

People Kind Persons Spiritual Humanity Morality Materialism Ruthless Materialistic Ruthlessness Materialistic Person

Author:Jaggi Vasudev

“Best things in life aren't things.”

“Africa may yet prove to be the spiritual conservatory of the world ... When the civilised nations in consequence of their wonderful material development, shall have had their spiritual susceptibilities blunted through the agency of a captivating and absorbing materialism, it may be that they have to resort to Africa to recover some of the simple elements of faith.”

“I always prided myself on the fact that I could live out of milk crates forever. It was kind of my way of detaching from materialism.”

Way Kind Facts Forever My Way Materialism Milk

Author:Kerry Washington

“Criticism alone can sever the root of materialism, fatalism, atheism, free-thinking, fanaticism, and superstition, which can be injurious universally; as well as of idealism and skepticism, which are dangerous chiefly to the Schools, and hardly allow of being handed on to the public.”

Thinking Wells School Atheism Dangerous Danger Roots Criticism Materialism Superstitions Skepticism Idealism Fanaticism Free Thinking Fatalism

Book:Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Pure Reason

Source: Immanuel Kant's Critique Of Pure Reason

“All I have seen teaches me to trust the creator for all I have not seen.”

Source: Natural Abundance: Ralph Waldo Emerson's Guide to Prosperity

“The history of prevailing status quos shows decay and decadence infecting the opulent materialism of the Haves. The spiritual life of the Haves is a ritualistic justification of their possessions.”

Shows Spiritual Possession Materialism Spiritual Life Decay Justification Status Quo Prevailing Decadence Rules For Radicals

Author:Saul

“This great, though disastrous, culture can only change as we begin to stand off and see... the inveterate materialism which has become the model for cultures around the world.”

World Artist Culture Models Around The World Materialism

Author:Arthur Erickson

“Materialism has never been so ominous as now in North America, as management takes over.”

America Artist Management Materialism North America Ominous

Author:Arthur Erickson

“After 1980, you never heard reference to space again. Surface, the most convincing evidence of the descent into materialism, became the focus of design. Space disappeared.”

Space Focus Heard Design Evidence Surface Materialism Convincing Descent Convincing Evidence

Author:Arthur Erickson

“On previous occasions when God incarnated on earth, the bliss of recognising Him in the incarnation was vouchsafed only after the physical embodiment had left the world, in spite of plenty of evidences of His Grace. But, ponder a moment on this Sathya Sai Manifestation; in this age of rampant materialism, aggressive disbelief and irreverence, what is it that brings to It the adoration of millions from all over the world? You will be convinced that the basic reason for this is the fact that this is the Supra-worldly Divinity in Human Form.”

“American energy. . . is the energy of violence, of free-floating resentment and anxiety unleashed by chronic cultural dislocations which must be, for the most part, ferociously sublimated. This energy has mainly been sublimated into crude materialism”

Energy Violence Anxiety Materialism Resentment Floating Crude Unleashed Dislocation

Author:Susan Sontag

“In L.A. like there's a lot of like materialism and, you know, people who think they're better than each other because of the clothes they wear or how they dress and in Oakland it's not like that.”

People Thinking Knows Clothes Dresses Materialism Oakland

Author:Kreayshawn

“The structure of human betterment cannot be built upon foundations of materialism or business, but upon the bedrock of individual character in free men and women.”

Men Humans Character Individual Men And Women Built Foundation Structure Materialism Free Man Betterment Bedrock

Book:Challenge Liberty

Source: Challenge Liberty

“The main point of any spiritual practice is to step out of the bureaucracy of ego. This means stepping out of ego's constant desire for a higher, more spiritual, more transcendental version of knowledge, religion, virtue, judgment, comfort, or whatever it is that the particular ego is seeking. One must step out of spiritual materialism.”

Mean Spiritual Desire Steps Practice Virtue Particular Higher Comfort Ego Judgment Constant Seeking Versions Materialism Bureaucracy Transcendental Spiritual Practice

Book:The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Three: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism; The Myth of Freedom; The Heart of the Bud dha; Selected Writings

Source: The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Three: Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism; The Myth of Freedom; The Heart of the Bud dha; Selected Writings

“The materialistic idealism that governs American life, that on the one hand makes a chariot of every grocery wagon, and on the other a mere hitching post of every star, lets every man lead a very enticing double life.”

Men Hands Stars Mere Every Man Posts Materialism Idealism Groceries Materialistic American Life Wagons Chariots Enticing Double Life

Author:Louis Kronenberger

“Materialism is decadent and degenerate only if the spirit of the nation has withered and if individual people are so unimaginative that they wallow in it.”

People Ifs Spirit Individual Nations Materialism Degenerates Withered

Book:Once Around the Sun

Source: Once Around the Sun

“All men need something to poetize and idealize their life a little-something which they value for more than its use, and which is a symbol of their emancipation from the mere materialism and drudgery of daily life.”

Men Needs Littles Use Values Mere Symbols Materialism Daily Life Emancipation Drudgery

Book:Ten Sermons of Religion

Source: Ten Sermons of Religion

“What need had the businessman to scribble or philosophize when he dominated the imagination of his time and the frantic materialism that was his principle of existence had become the haunting central figure in contemporary life?”

Needs Imagination Existence Principles Figures Contemporary Materialism Businessman Haunting Frantic Scribbles Contemporary Life

Book:On Native Grounds: An Interpretation Of Modern American Prose Literature

Source: On Native Grounds: An Interpretation Of Modern American Prose Literature

“Let our lives be firmly rooted in Truth. Abstain from lies. In this dark age of materialism, adherence to truth is the greatest austerity. We might have to tell lies now and then to protect somebody or to sustain dharma, but we must be careful not to speak lies for our own selfish purposes.”

“Children, in the present dark age of materialism, chanting the mantra is the easiest way for us to obtain inner purification and concentration. Japa can be done at any time, anywhere, without observing any rule regarding the purity of mind and body. Japa can be done while engaged in any task.”

Way Mind Children Done Body Age Dark Meditation Tasks Engaged Purity Concentration Materialism Observing Mind And Body Dark Ages Mantras Purification Chanting

Author:Mata Amritanandamayi

“The church has been brought into the same value system as the world: fame, success, materialism and celebrity. We watch the leading churches and the leading Christians for our cues. We want to emulate the best known preachers with the biggest sanctuaries and the grandest edifices. Preoccupation with these values has perverted the church's message.”

World Want Has Beens Christian Religion Values Church Known Watches Fame Messages Materialism Preacher Sanctuary Preoccupation Emulate Edifice Value Systems

Author:Charles Colson

“It's so easy today to get swept up in celebrity fixation and materialism and searching for some validation outside of yourself when we know it's really found within and through meaningful connections with other people.”

People Knows Today Found Easy Connections Meaningful Materialism Validation Fixation Meaningful Connections

Author:Geoffrey S. Fletcher

“This is our most dangerous addiction - our addiction to things. For it is this addiction that underlies the materialism of our age. And nowhere is this addiction more apparent than in our addiction to money.”

Age Culture Dangerous Addiction Materialism

Author:Russell Peters

“Socialism, hypnotism, patriotism, materialism, fools making laws for the breaking of jaws.”

Law Politics Fool Socialism Materialism

Author:Bob Dylan

“But as an adult working in the fashion industry, I struggle with materialism. And I'm one of the least materialistic people that exist, because material possessions don't mean much to me. They're beautiful, I enjoy them, they can enhance your life to a certain degree, but they're ultimately not important.”

People Mean Important Beautiful Certain Enjoy Struggle Fashion Materials Industry Degrees Adults Possession Materialism Materialistic Fashion Industry Material Possessions

Author:Tom Ford