Jimmy Carter Quotes

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

Materialism is an identity crisis.

Too many of us now tend to worship self-indulgence and consumption. Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns. But we’ve discovered that owning things and consuming things does not satisfy our longing for meaning.

It is among the less privileged groups relatively new to leisure and consumption that the zest for possessions retains something of its pristine energy.

In our rich consumers' civilization we spin cocoons around ourselves and get possessed by our possessions.

Culture and possessions, there is the bourgeoisie for you.

In a consumer society, people wallow in things, fascinating, enjoyable things. If you define your value by the things you acquire and surround yourself with, being excluded is humiliating.

There's nothing wrong with having a desire to want nice things. It's when we place that as a measure of the value of ourselves that it goes askew.

It's sad, the enslavement of the black underclass to designer labels - we're an age that cares more about Versace than Vermeer.

I worry that every time I lay down my credit card of choice, it says something about me. About my social standing or how I see myself. The very colour of your card is an indication of where you stand in the wealth stakes.

If you're holding your iPhone, and it's the newest iteration of it, you're like, 'Oh, famous people have my phone. Captains of industry have my phone.' And that can be an intoxicating experience for someone who is going off to college for the first time.

We value 'stuff' quite highly. Why? Because that 'stuff' apparently matters. Not only that, we use it as a measure of how successful we are, and as a result of that, having more of this 'stuff' often determines how people treat us.

I've seen a lot of people in my life base their self-worth on what job they book or don't book, what car they drive, or whether they can afford a house deposit or not.

Riches ennoble a man's circumstances, but not himself.

If men are to respect each other for what they are, they must cease to respect each other for what they own.

The ego tends to equate having with Being: I have, therefore I am. And the more I have, the more I am. The ego lives through comparison. How you are seen by others turns into how you see yourself.

Perhaps the less we have, the more we are required to brag.

We believe we will be made whole by our accomplishments, our possessions, or our social status. It's written in the fabric of our DNA that life used to be beautiful and now it isn't, and if only this and only that, it would be beautiful again.

A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.

The things you used to own, now they own you.

I don't get that much enjoyment out of saying 'I own it.'

The image is where you have dinner at night, who you're seeing. It's what car you drive and how you dress. People in the industry sell that, and it creates a dream. There's nothing else.

I felt I was owned by possessions.

'Be comfortable with who you are', reads the headline on the Hush Puppies poster. Are they mad? If people were comfortable with who they were, they'd never buy any products except the ones they needed, and then where would the advertising industry be?

It's no secret that in our society, and many before, people are trend followers. For some reason, they feel better about themselves if they are dressed in the latest fashion or have the newest tech gadget.