Excessive Possessions Quotes

People surround themselves in their houses with things they don't really need, that they have to dust all the time.

When I was an adolescent, I was obsessed with having many commercial things, cars, clothes, stupid things. Now that I have all that, I understand that the superfluous things can turn to you into a very stupid idiot-type. In East Germany there were very few things, but there was also a feeling of solidarity that no longer exists. Now we are up to the neck in consumption, the ego, the individualism. Now before friendship, it is merchandise.

I used to always rock a cap when I was in high school and get them taken away. It was an excessive amount. Like, so often that, at the end of each school year, there would be a box of all the confiscated caps. After they gave back a few caps to other kids, they would just give me the box because the rest were all my hats.

It is difficult if not impossible to find some reasonable limit for acquiring more and more property.

I don't like mansions. They depress me. In fact, I even feel sorry for a rich husband and wife living in a forty-room mansion. They're obviously searching for something they don't have, such as happiness or the respect of others.

The accouterments of life were so rich and varied, so elaborated, that almost no place at all was left for life itself. Each and every accessory was so costly and beautiful that it had an existence above and beyond the purpose it was meant to serve – confusing the observer and absorbing attention.

The possession of unnecessary implements makes difficult the collection of taxes and dues and tends to foment uprisings.

I would take one of 15 half-million-dollar cars I owned and go to the mall and spend that much money. Stupid, stupid stuff. It's like it didn't make a difference. They were ego investments. I would have been great with three or four cars. I didn't need a 117-foot boat.

Full is the earth of the superfluous; marred is life by the many-too-many. May they be decoyed out of this life by the "life eternal"!

In excess, most endeavors and possessions take on the characteristics of their opposite.

I'm a real hoarder.