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Want Quotes

“All of us experience the sad effects of blind submission to consumerism. In the first place it represents crass materialism. At the same time it represents a radical dissatisfaction because one quickly learns that the more one possesses, the more one wants, while deeper aspirations remain unsatisfied and perhaps even stifled.”

Want Firsts Effects Blind Deeper Radical Aspiration Materialism Consumerism Submission Dissatisfaction Overconsumption Unsatisfied Crass

Author:Pope John Paul II

“As businessmen caught a glimpse of the potentialities inherent in endlessly expanding the wants of people under consumerism, forced draft or otherwise, many began to see blue skies... What was needed was strategies that would make Americans in large numbers into voracious, wasteful, compulsive consumers-and strategies that would provide products assuring such wastefulness. Even where wastefulness was not involved, additional strategies were needed that would induce the public to consume at ever-higher levels.”

“Consumer wants can have bizarre, frivolous, or even immoral origins, and an admirable case can still be made for a society that seeks to satisfy them. But the case cannot stand if it is the process of satisfying wants that create the wants.”

Ifs Want Made Stills Process Cases Consumers Satisfying Consumerism Bizarre Immoral Admirable Overconsumption Frivolous

Book:The Essential Galbraith

Source: The Essential Galbraith

“Many of our miseries are merely comparative: we are often made unhappy, not by the presence of any real evil, but by the absence of some fictitious good; of something which is not required by any real want of nature, which has not in itself any power of gratification, and which neither reason nor fancy would have prompted us to wish, did we not see it in the possession of others.”

Want Made Real Reason Evil Wish Misery Possession Absence Unhappy Fancy Consumerism Gratification Overconsumption

Book:The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius

Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.: D., with an Essay on His Life and Genius

“Plenty is the original cause of many of our needs; and even the poverty, which is so frequent and distressful in civilized nations, proceeds often from that change of manners which opulence has produced. Nature makes us poor only when we want necessaries; but custom gives the name of poverty to the want of superfluities.”

Want Needs Giving Names Nations Causes Poor Poverty Originals Plenty Manners Civilized Customs Consumerism Overconsumption Opulence Civilized Nations

Book:The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

Source: The Rambler: A Periodical Paper, Published in 1750, 1751, 1752

“That the happiness of man may still remain imperfect, as wants in this place are easily supplied, new wants likewise are easily created; every man, in surveying the shops of London, sees numberless instruments and conveniencies, of which, while he did not know them, he never felt the need; and yet, when use has made them familiar, wonders how life could be supported without them. Thus it comes to pass, that our desires always increase with our possessions; the knowledge that something remains yet unenjoyed, impairs our enjoyment of the good before us.”

Source: The Works of Samuel Johnson: The Adventurer and Idler

“I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do everything through him who gives me strength.”

“The most outstanding characteristic of Eastern civilization is to know contentment, whereas that of Western civilization is not to know contentment. Contented Easterners are satisfied with their simple life and therefore do not seek to increase their material enjoyment... They are satisfied with their present lot and environment and therefore do not want to conquer nature but merely be at home with nature and at peace with their lot.”

“The writing has been on the wall for some years now, but we are a nation illiterate in the language of the wall. The writing just gets bigger. Something will eventually bring down the charming, infuriating naïveté of Americans that allows us our blithe consumption and cheerful ignorance of the secret ugliness that bring us whatever we want.”

Want Writing Years Has Beens Language Nations Secret Ignorance Wall Bigger Consumption Consumerism Charming Cheerful Ugliness Overconsumption Illiterate Vets Infuriating Blithe

Book:Small Wonder

Source: Small Wonder

“There are two ways to be rich - one in the abundance of your possessions and the other in the fewness of your wants.”

Way Want Two Rich Possession Abundance Consumerism Two Ways Overconsumption

Author:E. Stanley Jones

“This drive to always want more is based on the misconceptions that having more will make me more happy, more important, and more secure, but all three ideas are untrue. Possessions only provide temporary happiness. Because things do not change, we eventually become bored with them and then want newer, bigger, better versions.”

Want Important Ideas Three Bigger Possession Versions Secure Bored Temporary Consumerism Misconception Untrue Overconsumption Bigger Better

Book:The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?

Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?