Samuel Johnson Quotes

The ego wants to want more than it wants to have. And so the shallow satisfaction of having is always replaced by more wanting.

We always want more. Whether it is better clothes, a bigger house, faster cars, or the latest gadgets, satisfaction in these days of consumerism is difficult to find.

The desires of man increase with his acquisitions.

I had the notion that, OK, so now we have all of this wealth, we could buy not only one expensive car, we could buy all of them. As soon as you realize that you could buy all of them, then none of them are particularly interesting or satisfying.

Boredom is a fearsome prospect. There's a limit to the number of cars and microwaves you can buy. What do you do then?

Society is based on discontent: people wanting more and more and more, being continually dissatisfied with their homes, their bodies, their decor, their clothes, everything.

Man needs so little... yet he begins wanting so much.

Those who constantly want something will never feel happy.

He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.

Our culture highlights the desire to always have more, even when we should be grateful for what we have.

Our frustration is greater when we have much and want more than when we have nothing and want some. We are less dissatisfied when we lack many things than when we seem to lack but one thing.

I always want more.

However happy people say they are, nobody is satisfied: we always have to be with the prettiest woman, buy a bigger house, change cars, desire what we do not have.

It seems like a lot of people seek their peace in things. And most of us are not even satisfied with the things we have... we always want more.

It is not the man who has too little, but the man who craves more, that is poor.

I think we're all greedy. Who do you know who says, 'I have enough! I don't need any more!'? It's part of human nature.

We tend to always want to obtain something new and something more, and we never really enjoy what we have.

I'm not a materialistic person at all, but I always want the next thing; I've got a nice toolbox, but I still want another set of spanners.

The more we have, the more we want. And for this reason, we never have it all.

Greediness of getting more deprives... the enjoyment of what it had got.

My definition of poor are those who need too much. Because those who need too much are never satisfied.

Are these things really better than the things I already have? Or am I just trained to be dissatisfied with what I have now?

Under capitalism the common man enjoys amenities which in ages gone by were unknown and therefore inaccessible even to the richest people. But, of course, these motorcars, television sets and refrigerators do not make a man happy. In the instant in which he acquires them, he may feel happier than he did before. But as soon as some of his wishes are satisfied, new wishes spring up. Such is human nature.

Who is the covetous man? One for whom plenty is not enough.

Why, then, if expensive things cannot bring us remarkable joy, are we so powerfully drawn to them?