“Modern marketing culture is designed to amplify our desires. To turn faint wants into desperate needs. As a result, we’re intimately familiar with what we want. And we strive to get it. The problem with getting what you want is that now you have a hole, because you don’t want that thing anymore, you have it. We then are on a cycle, eager to find a new thing to want. Which means that the thing you used to want but now have fades in comparison. There’s a more resilient path: To commit to wanting what you have.”
Seth Godin
“Instead of asking, ‘How much do I value this item?’ we should ask, ‘If I did not own this item, how much would I pay to obtain it?’ We can do the same for opportunities and commitment. Don’t ask, ‘How will I feel if I miss out on this opportunity?’ but rather, ‘If I did not have this opportunity, how much would I be willing to sacrifice in order to obtain it?’ Similarly, we can ask, ‘If I wasn’t already involved in this project, how hard would I work to get on it?'”
Greg McKeown, Essentialism (Page 149)
“‘If I am more successful, I’ll be happier, and people will love me more.’ I was trying to fill an internal emotional hole with external, material achievements. Ultimately, this kind of obsession is insatiable. The more you get, the more you want, all the time never quite scratching the itch. You end up with a mind consumed by what it doesn’t have and what it didn’t get, and in a spiraling inability to enjoy what it has.”
Will Smith, Will (Page 333)
“It is a great happiness to have what you desire; but it is an even greater happiness not to want more than you already have.”
Menedemus, via A Calendar of Wisdom (Page 156)
“Markets often persuade us that we don’t have enough. Communities remind us that we do.”
Seth Godin, Blog
“We may claw and fight and work to own things, but those things can be taken away in a second. The same goes for other things we like to think are ‘ours’ but are equally precarious: our status, our physical health or strength, our relationships. How can these really be ours if something other than us—fate, bad luck, death, and so on—can dispossess us of them without notice? So what do we own? Just our lives—and not for long.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 360)
“No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.”
Seneca, via The Daily Stoic (Page 258)
“Poverty is not the absence of goods, but rather the overabundance of desire.”
Plato, via Sunbeams (Page 53)
50 Materialism Quotes to WAKE YOU UP From The Nightmare of More
Excerpt: Consumer culture is so good at making us want more. Read our 50 materialism quotes to WAKE UP from that nightmare and learn to live better.
Read More »50 Materialism Quotes to WAKE YOU UP From The Nightmare of More
Colin Wright Quote on Possessions and How They Possess Us If We’re Not Careful
“Our possessions possess us. All the things I owned kept the back of my mind activated. I used to sit around and feel weighted down by all the stuff in my life. I’d worry about everything I had, thinking ‘I’ve got this much, so now I need more – I need to level it out: I have the TV, so I need the DVD player; I have the garage, so I need a nice car to fill it; I have this, so I need that.’ It’s a never-ending cycle, a cold war with yourself.”
Colin Wright, via Everything That Remains
Beyond the Quote (333/365)
You know that feeling you get when you’re too excited to focus on anything else except for the thing that you’re excited about? Yeah, that was me a few days ago as I rushed home to unbox the new phone that had finally been delivered. I knew that I had responsibilities that needed responding to, but I decided to let the excitement sweep me away instead. Or maybe it just swept me away and I like to pretend that I “let” it. None-the-less, right as I was unboxing my new phone and getting everything set up, lo and behold, what happens next? My computer breaks down.
Read More »Colin Wright Quote on Possessions and How They Possess Us If We’re Not Careful“When you realize that all your material achievements are of value only in comparison with those who don’t have them, this is joy that springs from another’s deprivation. Can you really call this joy? Isn’t it actually a kind of sickness? It is time everyone addressed this. If you were alone on this planet, what would you want for yourself? Ask yourself this question and see where it takes you.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 221)
“There is something within every human being that dislikes boundaries, that is longing to become boundless. Human nature is such that we always yearn to be something more than what we are right now. No matter how much we achieve, we still want to be something more. If we just looked at this closely, we would realize that this longing is not for more; this longing is for all. We are all seeking to become infinite. The only problem is that we are seeking it in installments.”
Sadhguru, Inner Engineering (Page 23)
Naval Ravikant Quote on Desire and How It Works Against Your Pursuit of Happiness
“Desire is a contract that you make with yourself to be unhappy until you get what you want.”
Naval Ravikant, Medium
Beyond the Quote (272/365)
How many contracts of unhappiness have you signed? And how lengthy are the terms for each? Is the contract of your desire going to take you a week to obtain? A month? 12 months? 48 months? 72 months? Or is the contract you signed more like a 30 year mortgage? Are you really okay with being unhappy for that amount of time? …For any amount of time? And for what? A fancy car? A luxury watch? A playboy mansion? How much of your life are you willing to sacrifice for these things?
Read More »Naval Ravikant Quote on Desire and How It Works Against Your Pursuit of HappinessWitt Lowry Quote on Happiness and Why You Need To Free Yourself From Materialism
“If you’re not happy, you’re forever in debt.”
Witt Lowry, Debt
Beyond the Quote (228/365)
Debt is something, typically money, that’s owed. When you borrow $20 from your friend, you’re in debt to them. Until you pay them back, you will have that debt weighing on your shoulders. That’s why repaying a debt is such a gratifying, lightening feeling. You’re lightening the worry of your load. But, what about the debts that we imaginarily create in our minds? Sounds ridiculous, right? But, think about it.
Read More »Witt Lowry Quote on Happiness and Why You Need To Free Yourself From Materialism