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58f1f49 "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." greed needs materialism selfishness vice Fyodor Dostoyevsky
37f65b1 The things you own end up owning you. It's only after you lose everything that you're free to do anything. posessions materialism Chuck Palahniuk
0ab6b31 About once or twice every month I engage in public debates with those whose pressing need it is to woo and to win the approval of supernatural beings. Very often, when I give my view that there is no supernatural dimension, and certainly not one that is only or especially available to the faithful, and that the natural world is wonderful enough--and even miraculous enough if you insist--I attract pitying looks and anxious questions. How, in that case, I am asked, do I find meaning and purpose in life? How does a mere and gross materialist, with no expectation of a life to come, decide what, if anything, is worth caring about? Depending on my mood, I sometimes but not always refrain from pointing out what a breathtakingly insulting and patronizing question this is. (It is on a par with the equally subtle inquiry: Since you don't believe in our god, what stops you from stealing and lying and raping and killing to your heart's content?) Just as the answer to the latter question is: self-respect and the desire for the respect of others--while in the meantime it is precisely those who think they have divine permission who are truly capable of any atrocity--so the answer to the first question falls into two parts. A life that partakes even a little of friendship, love, irony, humor, parenthood, literature, and music, and the chance to take part in battles for the liberation of others cannot be called 'meaningless' except if the person living it is also an existentialist and elects to call it so. It could be that all existence is a pointless joke, but it is not in fact possible to live one's everyday life as if this were so. Whereas if one sought to define meaninglessness and futility, the idea that a human life should be expended in the guilty, fearful, self-obsessed propitiation of supernatural nonentities... but there, there. Enough. existence morality faith religion god life secular-ethics supernaturalism meaning-of-life debate existentialism ethics materialism naturalism atheism respect self-respect Christopher Hitchens
4d39439 What is the use of a house if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on? environmental-protection possessions environment materialism Henry David Thoreau
8f42ff9 ...it is not to be understood that I am with him [Jesus] in all his doctrines. I am a Materialist, he takes the side of spiritualism; he preaches the efficacy of repentance toward forgiveness of sin. I require a counterpoise of good works to redeem it... Among the sayings & discourses imputed to him by his biographers, I find many passages of fine imagination, correct morality, and of the most lovely benevolence: and others again of so much ignorance, so much absurdity, so much untruth, charlatanism, and imposture, as to pronounce it impossible that such contradictions should have proceeded from the same being. [ ] materialist good-works untruth contradictions materialism atheism forgiveness ignorance atheist Thomas Jefferson
3b392da When once we quit the basis of sensation, all is in the wind. To talk of existences is to talk of . To say that the human soul, angels, god, are immaterial, is to say they are , or that there is no god, no angels, no soul. I cannot reason otherwise: but I believe I am supported in my creed of materialism by , , and . { } reason antoine-destutt-de-tracy antoine-louis-claude-destutt comte-de-tracy dugald-stewart john-locke john-stewart-mill stewart tracy john-adams creed materialism atheism angels locke Thomas Jefferson
b1883d7 Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Turn the old; return to them. Things do not change; we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts. God will see that you do not want society. simplicity materialism Henry David Thoreau
8775c11 "I am wired by nature to love the same toys that the world loves. I start to fit in. I start to love what others love. I start to call earth "home." Before you know it, I am calling luxeries "needs" and using my money just the way unbelievers do. I begin to forget the war. I don't think much about people perishing. Missions and unreached people drop out of my mind. I stop dreaming about the triumphs of grace. I sink into a secular mind-set that looks first to what man can do, not what God can do. It is a terrible sickness. And I thank God for those who have forced me again and again toward a wartime mind-set." money fitting-in mind-set worldliness missions materialism sickness John Piper
7862867 How pointless life could be, what a foolish business of inventing things to love, just so you could dread losing them. materialism Barbara Kingsolver
ebdc401 But I do know we're deficient in some way. We are too involved in materialistic things, and they don't satisfy us. The loving relationships we have, the universe around us, we take these things for granted. loving-relationship universe satisfaction life truth materialism Mitch Albom
34094ec It is rare indeed that people give. Most people guard and keep; they suppose that it is they themselves and what they identify with themselves that they are guarding and keeping, whereas what they are actually guarding and keeping is their system of reality and what they assume themselves to be. identity identification observational materialism self-delusion James Baldwin
2cd1c38 "[ science criteria eclipses fulfilled-prophecies materialistic-science prophecies record materialism Carl Sagan
cac6115 "There is no indisputable proof for the big bang," said Hollus. "And there is none for evolution. And yet you accept those. Why hold the question of whether there is a creator to a higher standard?" science big-bang double-standards materialism id macro-evolution macroevolution intelligent-design religious-science-fiction darwinism theism theistic-science-fiction naturalism Robert J. Sawyer
f7f1a8e Science is opposed to theological dogmas because science is founded on fact. To me, the universe is simply a great machine which never came into being and never will end. The human being is no exception to the natural order. Man, like the universe, is a machine. Nothing enters our minds or determines our actions which is not directly or indirectly a response to stimuli beating upon our sense organs from without. Owing to the similarity of our construction and the sameness of our environment, we respond in like manner to similar stimuli, and from the concordance of our reactions, understanding is born. In the course of ages, mechanisms of infinite complexity are developed, but what we call 'soul' or 'spirit,' is nothing more than the sum of the functionings of the body. When this functioning ceases, the 'soul' or the 'spirit' ceases likewise. I expressed these ideas long before the behaviorists, led by Pavlov in Russia and by Watson in the United States, proclaimed their new psychology. This apparently mechanistic conception is not antagonistic to an ethical conception of life. universe mind nature spirit religion science life behaviorism behaviorists first-cause ivan-pavlov ivan-petrovich-pavlov john-b-watson john-broadus-watson stimuli john-watson pavlov cosmology astronomy watson goal environment determinism ethics theology dogma materialism naturalism consciousness science-and-religion life-after-death physics psychology Nikola Tesla
e33155e I need anything, anything that will stop me from living in the kind of death the bourgeois eat, the death called comfort. rebellion comfort meaning fear escape-velocity bourgeoisie materialism mediocrity safety Kathy Acker
8832d7a Self-consciousness of the manner is the expensive substitute for simplicity. materialism vanity George Eliot
925d2d1 "This is the even-handed dealing of the world!" he said. "There is noth-ing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes tocondemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!" poverty materialism Charles Dickens
cf106d5 The Christmas tree, twinkling with lights, had a mountain of gifts piled up beneath it, like offerings to the great god of excess. holidays tess-gerritsen materialism gifts Tess Gerritsen
c869e44 We are tempted to believe that certain achievements and possessions will give us enduring satisfaction. We are invited to imagine ourselves scaling the steep cliff face of happiness in order to reach a wide, high plateau on which we will live out the rest of our lives; we are not reminded that soon after gaining the summit, we will be called down again into fresh lowlands of anxiety and desire. self-knowledge happiness status possessions anxiety materialism desire Alain de Botton
6c9c7f9 Action is the activity of the rational soul, which abhors irrationality and must combat it or be corrupted by it. When it sees the irrationality of others, it must seek to correct it, and can do this either by teaching or engaging in public affairs itself, correcting through its practice. And the purpose of action is to enable philosophy to continue, for if men are reduced to the material alone, they become no more than beasts. mankind mind reason philosophy continuance civilization body rationality materialism Iain Pears
c4dc5f5 The materialist is sure that history has been simply and solely a chain of causation, just as the [lunatic] is quite sure that he is simply and solely a chicken. Materialists and madmen never have doubts. materialism G.K. Chesterton
e0f059d I've often wondered where Jesus would apply His hastily made whip if He were to visit our culture. My guess is that it would not be money-changing tables in the temple that would feel His wrath, but the display racks in Christian bookstores. jesus retail materialism R.C. Sproul
a0365ac Time after time have nations, ay, and rich and strong nations, learned in the arts, been, and passed away to be forgotten, so that no memory of them remains. This is but one of several; for Time eats up the works of man. mankind time man futility learning fallen-nations inevitability nations passing-of-time materialism knowledge H. Rider Haggard
2f58350 Their constant outward-looking, their mania for radios, cars, and a thousand other trinkets made them dream and fix their eyes upon the trash of life, made it impossible for them to learn a language which could have taught them to speak of what was in their or others' hearts. The words of their souls were the syllables of popular songs. american-culture superficiality materialism Richard Wright
8ee5af5 And what, O Queen, are those things that are dear to a man? Are they not bubbles? Is not ambition but an endless ladder by which no height is ever climbed till the last unreachable rung is mounted? For height leads on to height, and there is not resting-place among them, and rung doth grow upon rung, and there is no limit to the number. mankind want greed humanity learning life endeavors things-that-matter ladder materialism H. Rider Haggard
100895f There are some who complain most energetically and inconsolably of any, because they are, as they say, doing their duty. I also have in my mind that seemingly wealthy, but most terribly impoverished class of all, who have accumulated dross, but know not how to use it, or get rid of it, and thus have forged their own golden or silver fetters. materialism Henry David Thoreau
4eef2e9 Money. The ultimate motivation. The ultimate way of keeping score. money wealth success materialism Michael Connelly
775ee21 The thing that really is trying to tyrannize through government is Science. The thing that really does use the secular arm is Science. And the creed that really is levying tithes and capturing schools, the creed that really is enforced by fine and imprisonment, the creed that really is proclaimed not in sermons but in statues, and spread not by pilgrims but by policemen--that creed is the great but disputed system of thought which began with Evolution and has ended in Eugenics. Materialism is really our established Church; for the government will really help it to persecute its heretics...I am not frightened of the word 'persecution'...It is a term of legal fact. If it means the imposition by the police of a widely disputed theory, incapable of final proof--then our priests are not now persecuting, but our doctors are. science eugenics materialism G.K. Chesterton
6eeded8 Needs multiply as they are met. Woe to the man who would live a disentangled life. Be on guard, my soul, of complicating your environment so that you have neither time nor room for growth! materialism Elisabeth Elliot
00256ef To the ones that arise from urgent material needs. sympathy materialism Christopher Hitchens
b50fcc6 ...if I try to make only enough money for my family' immediate needs, it may violate Scripture. ...Even though earning just enough to meet the needs of my family may seem nonmaterialistic, it's actually selfish when I could earn enough to care for others as well. money family more earning stewardship others needs selfish enough scripture materialism Randy Alcorn
233d90b Why does a steward steal? He steals because he's not sure he'll always remain with his master and wants to make his future secure. stewardship security materialism Alexandre Dumas
dc098a7 Parents who spoil their children out of 'love' should realize that they are performing acts of child abuse. Although there are no laws against such abuse--no man-made laws anyway--this spiritual mistreatment may result in as much long-term personal and social damage as the worst physical abuse. affluenza child-abuse materialism Randy Alcorn
f588df6 To have so little, and it of so little value, was to be quaintly free. possessions materialism Wallace Stegner
a838767 Because there is nothing, nothing on Urras that we Anarresti need! We left with empty hands, a hundred and seventy years ago, and we were right. We took nothing. Because there is nothing here but States and their weapons, the rich and their lies, and the poor and their misery. There is no way to act rightly, with a clear heart, on Urras. There is nothing you can do that profit does not enter into, and fear of loss, and the wish for power. You cannot say good morning without knowing which of you is 'superior' to the other, or trying to prove it. You cannot act like a brother to other people, you must manipulate them, or command them, or obey them, or trick them. You cannot touch another person, yet they will not leave you alone. There is no freedom. It is a box--Urras is a box, a package, with all the beautiful wrapping of blue sky and meadows and forests and great cities. And you open the box, and what is inside it? A black cellar full of dust, and a dead man. A man whose hand was shot off because he held it out to others. hierarchy materialism Ursula K. Le Guin
b3b6a4a It had never occurred to him that he should live in any other than what he would have called an ordinary way, with green glasses for hock, and excellent waiting at table. In warming himself at French social theories he had brought away no smell of scorching. We may handle even extreme opinions with impunity while our furniture, our dinner-giving, and preference for armorial bearings in our own ease, link us indissolubly with the established order. materialism George Eliot
fbf8f64 Manlius ... took care in his invitations, actively sought to exclude from his circle crude and vulgar men like Caius Valerius. But they were all around; it was Manlius who lived in a dream world, and his bubble of civility was becoming smaller and smaller. Caius Valerius, powerful member of a powerful family, had never even heard of Plato. A hundred, even fifty years before, such an absurdity would have been inconceivable. Now it was surprising if such a man did know anything of philosophy, and even if it was explained, he would not wish to understand. understanding education philosophy like-mindedness crudeness plato vulgarity civilization materialism knowledge power Iain Pears
46d2911 "The life of my people is to remember forever; each head granary is full. The life of your people is to forget: your thing granaries ("museums"), and not yourselves, are full." spirituality oral-tradition materialism Alice Walker
f4560e3 The kinds of purchases surveyed in the news generally sit well beyond necessity. In acquiring them, what we are after is rarely solely or even chiefly just material satisfaction; we are also guided by a deeper, often unconscious desire for some form of psychological transformation. We don't only want to things; we want to be through our ownership of them. Once we examine consumer behaviour with sufficient attention and generosity, it becomes clear that we aren't indelibly materialistic at all. What makes our age distinctive is our ambition to try to accomplish a variety of complex psychological goals via the acquisition of material goods. change life desires purchases material-goods necessity materialism psychology Alain de Botton
9ad3a04 The essence of the charge made against the modern high-status ideal is that it is guilty of effecting a gigantic distortion of priorities, of elevating to the highest level of achievement a process of material accumulation that should instead be only one of many factors determining the direction of our lives under a more truthful, more broadly defined conception of ourselves. self-knowledge status priorities materialism Alain de Botton
0f154d2 We buy things. We wear them or put them on our walls, or sit on them, but anyone who wants to can take them away from us. Or break them. ... Long after he's dead, someone else will own those stupid little boxes, and then someone after him, just as someone owned them before he did. But no one ever thinks of that: objects survive us and go on living. It's stupid to believe we own them. And it's sinful for them to be so important. death possessions ownership materialism Donna Leon
4f7bf86 The males (of the Hutchinson family that included both religious dissenter Anne and immensely wealthy and politically connected Thomas) were merchants who sought salvation through commerce. materialism H.W. Brands
985919f Why ask for your daily bread when you own the bakery? wealth temptation faith self-sufficiency materialism Randy Alcorn
e18265d To turn the tide of materialism in the Christian community, we desperately need bold models of kingdom-centered living. Despite our need to do it in a way that doesn't glorify people, we must hear each other's stories about giving or else our people will not learn to give. models christianity learning modelling example stewardship giving encouragement community materialism humility kingdom stories Randy Alcorn
74179af The man who cannot believe his senses, and the man who cannot believe anything else, are both insane, but their insanity is proved not by any error in their argument, but by the manifest mistake of their whole lives. They have both locked themselves up in two boxes, painted inside with the sun and stars; they are both unable to get out, the one into the health and happiness of heaven, the other even into the health and happiness of the earth. materialism mysticism G.K. Chesterton
a385bb5 I felt that it was unfair that my lack of a few pounds of flesh should deprive me of a chance at a good job but I had long ago emotionally rejected the world in which I lived and my reaction was: Well, this is the system by which people want the world to run whether it helps them or not. To me, my losing was only another manifestation of that queer, material way of American living that computed everything in terms of the concrete: weight, color, race, fur coats, radios, electric refrigerators, cars, money ... It seemed that I simply could not fit into a materialistic life. restrictions american-culture categorization materialism Richard Wright
02a688f The tyranny of an object, he thought. It doesn't know I exist. materialism Philip K. Dick
3e467eb We do not teach history; we recreate the experience. We follow the chain of consequences - the tracks of the beast in its forest. Look behind our words and you see the broad sweep of social behavior that no historian has ever touched. history personal-history social-history materialism experience Frank Herbert
c8bd5eb If I were a member of the class that rules, I would post men in all the neighborhoods of the nation, not to spy upon or club rebellious workers, not to break strikes or disrupt unions, but to ferret out those who no longer respond to the system in which they live. I would make it known that the real danger does not stem from those who seek to grab their share of wealth through force, or from those who try to defend their property through violence, for both of these groups, by their affirmative acts, support the values of the system in which they live. The millions that I would fear are those who do not dream of the prizes that the nation holds forth, for it is in them, though they may not know it, that a revolution has taken place and is biding its time to translate itself into a new and strange way of life. revolutions corporate-america materialism Richard Wright
c302d77 o. It is not wonderful. It is an ugly world. Not like this one. Anarres is all dusty and dry hills. All meager, all dry. And the people aren't beautiful. They have big hands and feet, like me and the waiter there. But not big bellies. They get very dirty, and take baths together, nobody here does that. The towns are very small and dull, they are dreary. No palaces. Life is dull, and hard work. You can't always have what you want, or even what you need, because there isn't enough. You Urrasti have enough. Enough air, enough rain, grass, oceans, food, music, buildings, factories, machines, books, clothes, history. You are rich, you own. We are poor, we lack. You have, we do not have. Everything is beautiful here. Only not the faces. On Anarres nothing is beautiful, nothing but the faces. The other faces, the men and women. We have nothing but that, nothing but each other. Here you see the jewels, there you see the eyes. And in the eyes you see the splendor, the splendor of the human spirit. Because our men and women are free--possessing nothing, they are free. And you the possessors are possessed. You are all in jail. Each alone, solitary, with a heap of what he owns. You live in prison, die in prison. It is all I can see in your eyes--the wall, the wall! materialism Ursula K. Le Guin
14b9237 They might have you, and they pay badly enough to guarantee you decent company. materialism John le Carré
bb62454 It has always been dangerous to institutionalize hope, and we no longer live in a society in which we will be allowed to institutionalize memory. worship intimacy-with-god idolatry conventional-wisdom resilience materialism Harold Bloom
e2fc005 The living cell is the most complex system of its size known to mankind. Its host of specialized molecules, many found nowhere else but within living material, are themselves already enormously complex. They execute a dance of exquisite fidelity, orchestrated with breathtaking precision. Vastly more elaborate than the most complicated ballet, the dance of life encompasses countless molecular performers in synergetic coordination. Yet this is a dance with no sign of a choreographer. No intelligent supervisor, no mystic force, no conscious controlling agency swings the molecules into place at the right time, chooses the appropriate players, closes the links, uncouples the partners, moves them on. The dance of life is spontaneous, self-sustaining, and self-creating. evolution nature science life molecules complexity cells materialism naturalism Paul Davies
4713cf8 No doubt you can get more in your market for a quart of milk than for a quart of blood, but that is not the market that heroes carry their blood to. money materialism Henry David Thoreau
f4394c7 "Did you find anything special?' Blackie asked. T. nodded. 'Come over here,' he said, 'and look.' Out of both pockets he drew bundles of pound notes. 'Old Misery's savings,' he said. 'Mike ripped out the mattress, but he missed them.' 'What are you going to do? Share them?' 'We aren't thieves,' T. said. 'Nobody's going to steal anything from this house. I kept these for you and me - a celebration.' He knelt down on the floor and counted them out - there were seventy in all. 'We'll burn them,' he said, 'one by one,' and taking it in turns they held a note upwards and lit the top corner, so that the flame burnt slowly towards their fingers. The grey ash floated above them and fell on their heads like age. 'I'd like to see Old Misery's face when we are through,' T. said. 'You hate him a lot?' Blackie asked. 'Of course I don't hate him,' T. said. 'There'd be no fun if I hated him.' The last burning note illuminated his brooding face. 'All this hate and love,' he said, 'it's soft, it's hooey. There's only things, Blackie,' and he looked round the room crowded with the unfamiliar shadows of half things, broken things, former things. 'I'll race you home, Blackie,' he said. ("The Destructors")" money love things objects materialism Graham Greene
6552bab "That's what money will buy you, in America," Brown had said, firmly. "People say Americans are materialistic. But do you know why?" "Why?" asked Milgrim, more concerned with this uncharacteristically expansive mode of expression on Brown's part. "Because they have better stuff," Brown had replied. "No other reason." money americans materialism William Gibson
bae4afc Being self-owned is a state of mind. distraction discipleship materialism Nassim Nicholas Taleb
8597eec [The materialist] thinks me a slave because I am not allowed to believe in determinism. I think [the materialist] a slave because he is not allowed to believe in fairies. humor fairies materialism G.K. Chesterton
8a870c4 In proportion that property is small, the danger of misusing the franchisee is great. manipulation perspective materialism democracy Barbara W. Tuchman
812f541 She feared that she would become a slave to superficial, symbolic duties. priorities distraction materialism ritual Doris Kearns Goodwin
ed12801 "The narrator refers to a character as "an oily scoundrel whose hands were heavy with the money that stuck to them." idolatry distraction materialism Pearl S. Buck
3fe5123 In the heir's world, where everything was available, the unattainable had a wild allure. thought-wife spiritual-warfare self-discipline materialism Geraldine Brooks
1cb3fe6 The newly-minted captain admits the irony between the gold on his shoulders and the lack of gold in his pockets. prestige materialism Patrick O'Brian
3d884e0 Clearly prize money received more serious attention than scurvy or signals. materialism obsession Barbara W. Tuchman
c397b07 The author jokes that the culture at his first job at Entertainment Weekly chased away the worthwhile aspects of his Brown education, but in so doing he makes a subtle point about the profound impact of the culture with which we surround ourselves and how easily we can be defined and constrained by our jobs. maturation materialism A.J. Jacobs
d644b4b New York's perennial attraction was shopping. culture materialism Erik Larson
711ae19 Far from a source of suffering, their adopted faith had been a source of power. distraction materialism Barbara W. Tuchman
e0ffb8a All this visible greatness was really one with Nineveh and Tyre. nationalism culture materialism Barbara W. Tuchman
cefc3b8 "They were embracing material things and expecting a sort of hug back. But it never works. You can't substitute material things for love or for gentleness or for tenderness or for a sense of comradeship. "Money is not a substitute for tenderness, and power is not a substitute for tenderness. I can tell you, as I'm sitting here dying, when you most need it, neither money nor power will give you the feeling you're looking for, no matter how much of them you have." materialism Mitch Albom
82fa12b Proper society did not think about MAKING money, only about spending it. self-gratification materialism Barbara W. Tuchman
794f830 Chronicling future appeasing Prime Minister Joseph Chamberlain's rise to Parliament from first-generation commercial interests rather than the aristocracy, the author diagnoses even then that he had no center outside himself. heritage perspective materialism popularity Barbara W. Tuchman
c16d8c6 My claim here is not merely that I am a materialist through and through, and that the subversive kernel of Christianity is accessible also to a materialist approach; my thesis is much stronger: this kernel is accessible only to a materialist approach--and vice versa: to become a true dialectical materialist, one should go through the Christian experience. dialectics materialism Slavoj Žižek
5c5bd9f The author says the earliest Australian aborigines devoted extraordinary amounts of energy to enterprises no one now can understand. heritage legacy materialism Bill Bryson
d24dfb8 He (William Howard Taft) had little patience with the unconscious arrogance of conscious wealth and financial success. materialism pride Doris Kearns Goodwin
ed4d997 There is a powerful relationship between our true spiritual condition and our attitude and actions concerning money and possessions. money possessions materialism Randy Alcorn
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