Quotes for All
We are a material-mad race of people. Build, increase, expand, pile up, hoard! More and more and more. “If we can just make enough money to-to- !” Jesus said: Sell what ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, … Read more
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 … Read more
Our consumer economy peddles the notions romantic consumerism of finding the one, of being the one. It’s the narcissistic enhancement of, I’m the one you stopped your nomadic life for. It’s one thing when you have sex for the first time when you marry, but it’s another thing altogether when you stop having sex with … Read more
I think love is often a bit selfish, even before we had consumerism. That’s not new. A consumer society gives you the illusion of having massive amounts of choice and saddles you with the freedom of being able to dabble in that choice. And at the same time, you are left with the tyranny of … Read more
Modern man is drinking and drugging himself out of awareness, or he spends his time shopping, which is the same thing. Ernest Becker
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 … Read more
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
Modern man is alienated from himself, from his fellow men, and from nature. He has been transformed into a commodity, experiences his life forces as an investment which must bring him the maximum profit obtainable under existing market conditions. Erich Fromm
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. Eric Sevareid
You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy. Eric Hoffer