Acquiring Things Quotes

I think there is a serious corruption in the idea sold through advertising that you can attain spiritual peace through lifestyle and the notion of building your happiness from the outside-in by acquiring things ... which if you think about it, is the essence of advertising ~ Edward Norton

If you live in a material universe where acquiring things is very important to you, then family is an absolute deterrent to maintaining that sort of a world, because family involves values like affection, and sympathy, and passion, and types of pleasure that lead nowhere in a material sense. ~ John Taylor Gatto

It dawned on me that my world was defined by accumulation, by the gratification of acquiring things, of seeing numbers go up and up again. ~ Leon Logothetis

Ever seen that bumper sticker "He who dies with the most toys wins"? Millions of people act as if it were true. The more accurate saying is "He who dies with the most toys still dies - and never takes his toys with him." When we die after devoting our lives to acquiring things, we don't win - we lose. We move into eternity, but our toys stay behind, filling junkyards. The bumper sticker couldn't be more wrong. ~ Randy Alcorn

He said, "I've always liked the name Jane." Blue's eyes widened. "Ja - what? Oh! No, no. You can't just go around naming people other things because you don't like their real name. ~ Maggie Stiefvater

Keep smiling, the world needs beautiful things! ~ R.E.S. Tidmore

A lot of people, to attack an outspoken atheist, one of the things they'll do is say, 'You are as bad as the fundamentalist Christians.' And my answer is always, 'I hope so.' ~ Penn Jillette

I was thinking about a lot of things at that moment, really, and I mean a lot of things. Like the way squirrels in my front yard won't play with me. But more serious stuff too. ~ Chad Eastham

In order to translate a sentence from English into French two things are necessary. First, we must understand thoroughly the English sentence. Second, we must be familiar with the forms of expression peculiar to the French language. The situation is very similar when we attempt to express in mathematical symbols a condition proposed in words. First, we must understand thoroughly the condition. Second, we must be familiar with the forms of mathematical expression. ~ George Polya

I wish that she would have asked for help or told someone what happened, but everyone deals with these things differently, especially when you think you're all alone. You were able to block it out and that's how you coped. I think she tried to do that, but she was a lot older when it happened to her so it made it impossible. Instead of blocking it out and never thinking about it again, I know she did the exact opposite. I know that it consumed every part of her life until she just couldn't take it anymore. ~ Colleen Hoover

My only sin in this world has been that I have been truthful and honest and God has blessed me for this earthly sin. ~ Amit Abraham

We do not always see the things that are nearest to us. We pass by riches that lie close at hand and chase after rainbows. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda

Cynthia came in quietly and set a cup of tea before him. He kissed her hand, inexpressibly grateful, and she went back into the kitchen. When we view the little things with thanksgiving, even they become big things. ~ Jan Karon

If an author is going to put in a forbidden element in a storyline and actually have them doing things to protect their heroine then that's good. When these hero's end up sleeping with one woman after another all in the name of protecting their heroine's well then they come across as sleazy and not a character to admire or respect. Angst is fine for me if done the right way especially if I can feel the love they have for their women......but then it totally negates their love when you have explicit sex scenes with ow where they certainly do not appear to be in misery. ~ Fre06 Begum

I was so used to being given things that I didn't know how important it is for your soul to earn them. ~ Taylor Jenkins Reid

You might say, 'Can't we have a more human Christianity, without the cross, without Jesus, without stripping ourselves?' In this way we'd become pastry-shop Christians, like a pretty cake and nice sweet things. Pretty, but not true Christians. ~ Pope Francis

Hey Nana, do you remember the first time we met? I beleive in things like fate.
So I think it was fate. ~ Ai Yazawa

A mixture, before the English, of irritation and bafflement, of having this same language, same past, so many same things, and yet not belonging to them any more. Being worse than rootless ... speciesless. ~ John Fowles

There is something about the burning of all those letters that gives me pause: why should everything be made clear and be brought into the light? Why keep things, archive your intimacies? Why not let thirty years of shared conversation go spiralling in ash up into the air of Tunbridge Wells? Just because you have it does not mean you have to pass it on. Losing things can sometimes gain you a space in which to live. ~ Edmund De Waal

You want me to have feelings?" he said. "I already told you that I love you. What else should I say? That I long to be near you every second of every day? I see colors, only around you ... I smell perfume, only around you. God, it's like ... like I'm alive again. Sometimes I go crazy just wondering if I imagined it all, and I wait to see when it ... you ... will be taken away from me."
"I feel all these things, Abbey," he continued on. "Rage that I can't run my fingers through your hair. Sorrow that I can't lay my face next to yours. Agony that I can't steal the breath from your lips. I can't eat or breathe or sleep for wanting to touch you, and yet I don't eat or breathe or sleep. I'm just here. Stuck in between. ~ Jessica Verday

In life, there isn't always second chance for many things. If there is then make the most of it. ~ Raja Shakeel Mushtaque

You can't control the things that happen to you, but you can control the way you feel about them. ~ Ashley Rickards

You know, in this job we really need someone who is responsible." The man thinks for a moment, then replies, "I am perfect for you. In my last job lots of things went badly wrong, and they always said that I was responsible. ~ Richard Wiseman

One thing I've learned over time is, if you hit a golf ball into water, it won't float. ~ Arnold Palmer

If in this wide world, teeming with abundant supplies for human want, to thousands of wretched creatures no choice is open, save between starvation and sin, may we not justly say that there is something utterly wrong in the system that permits such things to be? ~ Tennessee Celeste Claflin

You have to believe that things can be bigger than what you see in front of you in order to move forward. ~ Joe Nichols

So stay true to your own nature. If you like to do things in a slow and steady way, don't let others make you feel as if you have to race. If you enjoy depth, don't force yourself to seek breadth. If you prefer single-tasking to multi-tasking, stick to your guns. Being relatively unmoved by rewards gives you the incalculable power to go your own way. ~ Susan Cain

I'd been made to "play it by ear," which in my experience means that several things will go wrong and I won't be allowed to get mad about it. ~ Katie Heaney

Torque was the greatest thing in the world, as far as Lina was concerned. ~ Jaleigh Johnson

There are only two precious things on earth: the first is love; the second, a long way behind it, is intelligence. ~ Ed Greenwood

I never wanted to kill, I am not naturally evil. Such things I do just to make myself more attractive to you -have I failed? ~ Morrissey

Skating taught me to set a goal and to block out other things and just focus on this one thing. ~ Katarina Witt

Among other things, Kathryn knew, grief was physically exhausting. ~ Anita Shreve

There are still many things to be revealed. ~ Dan Cuthbert

This is, however, one of the greatest delights of a garden; the nearly hypnotic ability it has to make you slow down, consider things about life more carefully, wrangle over difficulties with care and imagination rather than anger and ferocity. ~ Mary F. Irish

People think they understand things because they become familiar with them. This is only superficial knowledge. It is the knowledge of the astronomer who knows the names of the stars, the botanist who knows the classification of the leaves and flowers, the artist who knows the aesthetics of green and red. This is not to know nature itself- the earth and sky, green and red. Astronomer, botanist, and artist have done no more than grasp impressions and interpret them, each within the vault of his own mind. The more involved they become with the activity of the intellect, the more they set themselves apart and the more difficult it becomes to live naturally. ~ Masanobu Fukuoka

It's not that your mother didn't love you,' the boy named Crow says from behind me. 'She loved you very deeply. The first thing you have to do is believe that. That's your starting point.'
'But she abandoned me. She disappeared, leaving me alone where I shouldn't be. I'm finally beginning to understand how much that hurt. How could she do it if she really loved me?'
'That's the reality of it. It did happen,'the boy named Crow says. 'You were hurt badly, and those scars will be with you forever. I feel sorry for you, I really do. But think of it like this: It's not too late to recover. You're young, you're tough. You're adaptable. You can patch up your wounds, lift your head, and move on. But for her that's not an option. The only thing she'll ever be is lost. It doesn't matter whether somebody judges this as good or bad- that's not the point. You're the one who has the advantage. You ought to consider that.'
I don't respond.
'It all really happened, you can't undo it,' Crow tells me. 'She shouldn't have abandoned you then, and you shouldn't have been abandoned. But things in the past are like a plate that's shattered to pieces. You can never put it back together like it was, right?'
I nod. You can never put it back together like it was. He's hit the nail on the head.
The boy named Crow continues. 'Your mother felt a gut-wrenching kind of fear and anger inside her, okay? Just like you do now. Which is why she had to abandon you.'
'Eve ~ Haruki Murakami

If things went my way, I would be working at a renaissance fair as a falconer. I wouldn't have to worry about climbing career ladders or getting promotions, because falconry's not like that. Either you're a falconer or you're not. Either the birds come back to you or they fly away. My father waited ~ Carol Rifka Brunt

I definitely have managed to overcome dyslexia now to become a fully functional human being but things were a lot more difficult when I was younger. ~ Ahmet Zappa

But as I looked at everything I was supposed to carry and thought about all the things I was supposed to know, I had to wonder: Do all girls go through this? Is every girl on a date really in deep cover? ~ Ally Carter

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realise they were the big things. ~ Robert Brault

It's easier to say true things in the dark. Spider said, "You know what doesn't make sense here?" "Everything? ~ Neil Gaiman

I'm sorry. I told you I'm not good with words."
Wrapping my arms around his neck, I pressed my lips to his and spoke against them, "You are perfect, Lev. Your words are honest and colored beautifully. You make me feel things I thought were lost to me. And I'm in danger of losing my heart to you. ~ Belle Aurora

The old who refuse to die merely on principle live on forever, to hate life and complain of all the things they could have been spared had they the good sense to die young. ~ Michelle Franklin

The most active people in the country know different things, and because each one tends to hear mostly and deal mostly with people with whom they agree, they are reinforced not simply in the conviction that they are right, which is totally appropriate, but that they are the majority. So you have both sides, the Left and the Right, thinking that the majority of the country is really with them. ~ Barney Frank

Well, as anyone who actually writes knows, if you sit down and are prepared, then the ideas come. There's a lot of different ways people explain that, but, you know, I find that if I sit down and I prepare myself, generally things get done. ~ Nick Cave

I do feel free, I have patched things up with my ex-husband to the degree of this real friendship. We spend a lot of time together as a family with our son, no way will we be man and wife again. ~ Beccy Cole

Only we don't call it 'ignorance', we call it 'faith'. What a horrible little word that is - faith - exuding as it does its fake aura of purity and virtue while fronting some of the ugliest ideas this planet has ever seen. Closing people's hearts when it should be opening them. Making them proud of things they should be ashamed of. And ashamed of things they should be proud of. ~ Pat Condell

You have the freedom to live and let live, to love and let love. Granting yourself that freedom is one of the healthiest, most constructive things you can do for yourself and the people who matter to you. ~ Martha Beck

45A good person produces good things from the treasury of a good heart, and an evil person produces evil things from the treasury of an evil heart. What you say flows from what is in your heart. ~ Anonymous