Asceticism Quote by Paul Goodman

“At the same time, however, the necessity for economic change in our countries has led us to conceive laws and accept traditions often at…

— Jean Vanier

“Mix the Protestant impulse to find the meaning and purpose in everything with the Enlightenment’s empiricism, and you get our American mania for connecting…

— Kurt Andersen

“luxury   generally prevails in prosperity, and wastes the blessings of God,”

— John Calvin

“In attempting to uphold scarcity, toil, poverty and subjugation against the growing potential for post-scarcity, leisure, abundance and freedom, capitalism increasingly emerges as the…

— Murray Bookchin

“To us, the argument for material well-being might seem uncontroversial. But in the eighteenth century, material prosperity was frequently condemned as "luxury" by religious…

— Jerry Z. Muller

The folly of endless consumerism sends us on a wild goose-chase for happiness through materialism.

— Bryant H. McGill

Destitution and excessive luxury develop apparently the same ideals, the same marauding attitude towards mankind, the intensity of struggle for material goods, -- surely…

— Alice James

Advertisers regularly con us into believing that we genuinely need one luxury after another. We are convinced that we must keep up with or…

— Ronald J. Sider

“Clever, ambitious, and always in search of greater efficiency, we Americans have, in two short centuries, created a world of push button, round the…

— Elizabeth Gilbert

“In a hyper materialist environment where everything is reduced to mere economic considerations, what we deem to be important is often trivial, a temporary…

— Cory Bernardi

“The materialistic and selfish quality of contemporary life is not inherent in the human condition. Much of what appears ‘natural’ today dates from the…

— Tony Judt

The luxury of today is the necessity of tomorrow. Every advance first comes into being as the luxury of a few rich people, only…

— Ludwig von Mises