Herbert Marcuse Quotes

Human identity is no longer defined by what one does, but by what one owns.

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.

I shop, therefore I am.

We don't need fashion to survive, we just desire it so much.

I try to educate people about materialism through my work. I try to show them real visual luxury.

People like their handbag more than their sofa, and I hate it.

I have a Mercedes. I wear a Rolex watch. I have no problem with the selling of things.

No matter what, I always have expensive designer shoes. It's all about the shoes for me.

Pop artists deal with the lowly trivia of possessions and equipment that the present generation is lugging along with it on its safari into the future.

The so-called consumer society and the politics of corporate capitalism have created a second nature of man which ties him libidinally and aggressively to the commodity form. The need for possessing, consuming, handling and constantly renewing the gadgets, devices, instruments, engines, offered to and imposed upon the people, for using these wares even at the danger of one’s own destruction, has become a “biological” need.

It's very hard to imagine the phrase 'consumer society' used so cheerfully, and interpreted so enthusiastically, in England.

'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?

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

I just don't like conspicuous consumption. I find it distasteful.

America must be the teacher of democracy, not the advertiser of the consumer society. It is unrealistic for the rest of the world to reach the American living standard.

'The more expensive the better' is kind of the American way, and if you spent $600 for a sweatshirt, then that makes it better.

I'm not attracted to expensive things.

I write the shopping column. I think I've proven my superficiality.

You know, if you love something, you should love it regardless of whether it costs five dollars or 500 or 5,000 dollars. Unfortunately, that's not the way our culture works, and we do collectively buy into this idea that things that are more expensive probably have more value.

The media is convincing people that if you have that 'next thing,' that diamond, the right car, then you'd be happier.

You always hear the phrase, money doesn't buy you happiness. But I always in the back of my mind figured a lot of money will buy you a little bit of happiness. But it's not really true. I got a new car because the old one's lease expired.

Status-driven, conspicuous consumption thrives from the language of novelty.

What we buy, and pay for, is part of ourselves.

Well, we're living in a material world, and I'm a material girl... or boy.

Some people just use beautiful things to just shop or to have a tribal feeling - 'Oh, blah, blah, blah, I'm wearing Hermes; blah, blah, blah, I'm wearing Saint Laurent; blah-blah blah' - because it's like a need, a tribe, recognition: 'Ahh, my Rolex.' But I run away from anything which is too recognizable - it's my nature.