Morgan Freeman Quotes

False values begin with the worship of things.

Our life on earth is, and ought to be, material and carnal. But we have not yet learned to manage our materialism and carnality properly; they are still entangled with the desire for ownership.

The whole idea of the pursuit of goods and possessions has completely corrupted the human experience, along with religion, which I think limits the intellect.

We are such materialists that all our metaphors are going to be material.

Materialism is an identity crisis.

All of us experience the sad effects of blind submission to consumerism. In the first place it represents crass materialism. At the same time it represents a radical dissatisfaction because one quickly learns that the more one possesses, the more one wants, while deeper aspirations remain unsatisfied and perhaps even stifled.

Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.... Hoarding is idolatry.

[T]he recognition of private property has really harmed Individualism, and obscured it, by confusing a man with what he possesses. It has led Individualism entirely astray. It has made gain, not growth its aim. So that man thought that the important thing is to have, and did not know that the important thing is to be.

Anything you think you "must have" usually comes to own you.

We are living in a material world and I'm a material girl.

The desires of man increase with his acquisitions.

I felt I was owned by possessions.

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

I don't like to attach myself to material things.

One of the evils of money is that it tempts us to look at it rather than at the things that it buys.

There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men.

We live in a materialist world, and materialism appeals so strongly to humanity, no matter where.

The more you consume, the more insecure you are. It's the nature of the world.

I never strike out at any life form. The only things I attack are icons of conspicuous consumption. People put objects in front of their life, in front of anything that has real importance. They make this 'thing' their God.

It is difficult, if not impossible, to define the limit of our reasonable desires in respect of possessions.

He has not acquired a fortune; the fortune has acquired him.

... idolatry of money and the dictatorship of an impersonal economy in which man is reduced to one of his needs alone: consumption.

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