Materialism Quotes and Proverbs

Seneca
What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.

Epictetus, c 200 AD
People are disturbed not by things but by the view they take of them.

Anwar El-Sadat
Most people seek after what they do not possess and are thus enslaved by the very things they want to acquire.

William R. Bradford
Our lives can become cluttered by many things.  Some are obvious, such as material things, the stuff we collect.  I really wish I were able to give a lesson on how to prioritize the material things-how to sort them, dispose of some, and put the rest in order-but I'm not qualified... But how well I know that we can surround ourselves with the material things to the extent that we have no time for the spiritual.  Look around and you will see all the gadgets and toys and the nice and the fun things that cause us to squander and pay and to wander and play.

Eric Hoffer
Every era has a currency that buys souls. In some the currency is pride, in others it is hope, in still others it is a holy cause. There are of course times when hard cash will buy souls, and the remarkable thing is that such times are marked by civility, tolerance, and the smooth working of everyday life.

Ludwig von Mises
He who disdains the fall in infant mortality and the gradual disappearance of famines and plagues may cast the first stone upon the materialism of the economists.