Materialism is the only form of distraction from true bliss.

 —Doug Horton

It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.

 —Bertrand Russell

Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.

 — Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

The only reason a great many American families don’t own an elephant is that they’ve never been offered an elephant for a dollar down and easy weekly payments.

 —Mad Magazine

Young people everywhere have been allowed to choose between love and a garbage disposal unit. Everywhere they have chosen the garbage disposal unit.

 —Guy Debord

The people recognize themselves in their commodities; they find their soul in their automobile, hi-fi set, split-level home, kitchen equipment.

 —Herbert Marcuse

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

 —Seneca

Oh, what a void there is in things.

—Persius

You can never have enough of what you don’t need to make you happy.

 —Eric Hoffer

Junk is something you keep for years and then throw out two weeks before you need it.

 — anonymous

Somebody said to me, “But the Beatles were anti-materialistic.” That’s a huge myth. John and I literally used to sit down and say, “Now let’s write a swimming pool.”

 —Paul McCartney

There must be more to life than having everything.

 — Maurice Sendak

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.

 — Ludwig Von Mises