Materialism Quotes

• Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Birthday, Peace, Age

  Peace Pilgrim (1992). “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words”, p.19, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

  77 Copy quote

  Show source

• The best things in life aren't things.

  Art Buchwald

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  92 Copy quote

• Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss.

  Douglas Horton

  Motivational, Success, Simplicity

  48 Copy quote

• These days, in our materialistic culture, many people are led to believe that money is the ultimate source of happiness. Consequently, when they don’t have enough of it they feel let down. Therefore, it is important to let people know that they have the source of contentment and happiness within themselves, and that it is related to nurturing our natural inner values.

  Dalai Lama

  Life, Happiness, Happy

  24 Copy quote

• Materialism is not fundamentally an economic problem, but a cultural one... a spiritual issue. It runs to the depths of our souls, and, for this reason, needs to be understood less in terms of budgets or fiscal cycles and more in terms of where we locate the sacred, of where we search for meaning and transcendence, and of how we think about justice, equality, and the future of our world.

  Robert Wuthnow

  Running, Spiritual, Thinking

  17 Copy quote

• The world says: "You have needs - satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Suicide, Believe, Envy

  "The Idiot". Book by Fyodor Dostoevsky (p. 2151), 1874.

  71 Copy quote

  Show source

• The day you stop racing, is the day you win the race.

  Bob Marley

  Love, Inspirational, Life

  178 Copy quote

• Unnecessary possessions are unnecessary burdens.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Unnecessary, Burden, Possession

  Peace Pilgrim (1981). “Steps Toward Inner Peace”, p.15, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

  28 Copy quote

  Show source

• The nightmare of materialism, which has turned the life of the universe into an evil, useless game, is not yet past; it holds the awakening soul still in its grip.

  Wassily Kandinsky

  Past, Games, Evil

  Wassily Kandinsky (2015). “Concerning the Spiritual in Art”, p.15, Sheba Blake Publishing

  26 Copy quote

  Show source

• We live in a world of things, and our only connection with them is that we know how to manipulate or to consume them.

  Erich Fromm

  History, Growth, Connections

  Erich Fromm (2013). “Sane Society Ils 252”, p.134, Routledge

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• There must be more to life than having everything.

  Maurice Sendak

  Life, Environmental, Climate Change

  Maurice Sendak, William Knowlton Zinsser (1998). “Worlds of Childhood: The Art and Craft of Writing for Children”, p.25, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

  52 Copy quote

  Show source

• There is no such thing as material covetousness. All covetousness is spiritual. ...Any so-called material thing that you want is merely a symbol: you want it not for itself, but because it will content your spirit for the moment.

  Mark Twain

  Spiritual, Greed, Want

  Mark Twain (1973). “What Is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings”, p.202, Univ of California Press

  41 Copy quote

  Show source

• Let there be as little materialism as possible, with the maximum of spirituality.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Littles, Spirituality, Maximum

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.2855, Manonmani Publishers

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• Increase of material comforts, it may be generally laid down, does not in any way whatsoever conduce to moral growth.

  Mahatma Gandhi

  Peace, Moral Growth, Comfort

  Mahatma Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Homer A. Jack (2005). “The Wit and Wisdom of Gandhi”, p.75, Courier Corporation

  12 Copy quote

  Show source

• Best things in life aren't things.

  Mike Ness

  Inspirational, Family, Happiness

  65 Copy quote

• The fact remains that the materialistic view is a truncated view of reality.

  Stephen C. Meyer

  Reality, Views, Facts

  18 Copy quote

• 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.

  Aimee Mann

  Motivation, Thinking, Greed

  6 Copy quote

• People are realizing that what seemed important to them in their lives-materialism and consumerism-doesn't work at all to make a happy heart. It actually makes an unhappy heart. And an unhappy world.

  Sylvia Boorstein

  Heart, People, Important

  11 Copy quote

• Materialism is an identity crisis.

  Bryant H. McGill

  Identity, Crisis, Identity Crisis

  14 Copy quote

• That intense faith in another world, that intense hatred for this world, that intense power of renunciation, that intense faith in God, that intense faith in the immortal soul, is in you. I challenge anyone to give it up. You cannot. You may try to impose upon me by becoming materialists, by talking materialism for a few months, but I know what you are; if I take you by the hand, back you come as good theists as ever were born. How can you change your nature?

  Swami Vivekananda

  Hands, Talking, Giving

  6 Copy quote

• Charity is great, but the moment you say it is all, you run the risk of running into materialism.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Running, Risk, Charity

  Swami Vivekananda (2015). “The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda”, p.1643, Manonmani Publishers

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism... We cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door.

  Richard Lewontin

  Commitment, Doors, Feet

  "Billions and Billions of Demons" by Richard C. Lewontin, www.nybooks.com. January 9, 1997.

  24 Copy quote

  Show source

• Life is called Samsara - it is the result of the conflicting forces acting upon us. Materialism says, "The voice of freedom is a delusion." Idealism says, "The voice that tells of bondage is but a dream." Vedanta says, "We are free and not free at the same time." That means that we are never free on the earthly plane, but ever free on the spiritual side. The Self is beyond both freedom and bondage. We are Brahman, we are immortal knowledge beyond the senses, we are Bliss Absolute.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Dream, Spiritual, Mean

  Swami Vivekananda (1955). “Complete Works”

  17 Copy quote

  Show source

• Man stands in materialism; you and I are materialists. Our talking about God and Spirit is good; but it is simply the vogue in our society to talk thus: we have learnt it parrot-like and repeat it. So we have to take ourselves where we are as materialists, and must take the help of matter and go on slowly until we become real spiritualists, and feel ourselves spirits, understand the spirit, and find that this world which we call the infinite is but a gross external form of that world which is behind.

  Swami Vivekananda

  Real, Men, Talking

  Swami Vivekananda (1966). “Complete Works”

  6 Copy quote

  Show source

• 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.

  Charles Baudelaire

  Beautiful, Running, Adventure

  Charles Baudelaire, Christopher Isherwood, W. H. Auden (2006). “Intimate Journals”, p.57, Courier Corporation

  12 Copy quote

  Show source