Many of us center our lives around making more money

• Modern individuals rarely see the need to adopt a philosophy of life. They instead tend to spend their days working hard to be able to afford the latest consumer gadget, in the resolute belief that if only they buy enough stuff, they will have a life that is both meaningful and maximally fulfilling. William B. Irvine
• The almighty dollar, that great object of universal devotion throughout our land. Washington Irving
• When it’s a question of money, everybody is of the same religion. Voltaire
• Materialism,  Consumerism,  Wealth,  Live rich, don’t die rich

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However, all the evidence shows that money and possessions don’t ensure happiness

• …there’s nothing inherently wrong with the desires of the Wanting Mind—it’s just that we are doomed to disappointment when we think they’ll bring any kind of lasting fulfillment. Brent Kessel
• Before we set our hearts too much upon any thing, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it. François de La Rochefoucald
• Can wealth give happiness? Look around and see, what gay distress! What splendid misery! Whatever fortunes lavishly can pour, the mind annihilates and calls for more. Andrew Young
• Don’t confuse comfort with happiness.   Jackson Brown Jr.
• Happy is harder than money. Anyone who thinks money will make them happy, doesn’t have money. David Geffen
• He who is happy is rich, but it does not follow that he who is rich is happy. Sir Robert Baden- Powell
• I think everybody should get rich and famous and do everything they ever dreamed of so they can see that it’s not the answer. Jim Carrey
• If you think that joy has anything to do with money, you really do not understand what you are doing here. Neale Donald Walsch
• If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Lao Tzu
• Money can be a help in attaining psychological wealth, but it must be considered in the bigger picture of what makes people genuinely rich. Ed Diener & Robert Biswas-Diener
• Money has never yet made anyone rich. Seneca
• Money is human happiness in the abstract; and so the man who is no longer capable of enjoying such happiness in the concrete, sets his whole heart on money. Arthur Schopenhauer
• Money is the gasoline of life, you don’t want to run out but having more doesn’t make life any better. Scott H Young
• Money—beyond the bare minimum necessary for food and shelter (and I am not talking caviar and castles)—is nothing more than a means to an end. Yet so often we confuse means with ends and sacrifice happiness (end) for money (means). Tal Ben- Shahar
• One of life’s great misconceptions is the belief if I get what I want, I’ll be happy. Years of research, and your own experience if you look at it carefully, will tell you that’s not so:  if you get what you want you will quickly get used to it and want something else instead.  But we have a hard time remembering this.  Advertising and the media play into these desires, telling us we can be happy if we just buy the right things, wear the right clothes, get the latest home entertainment or kitchen gadget.  Richard O’Connor
• The desire to have, to acquire and possess, is in principle insatiable, and rarely generates the sense of fulfillment and happiness it promises. Tom Morris
• There is a serious defect in the thinking of someone who wants–more than anything else– to become rich. As long as they don’t have the money, it’ll seem like a worthwhile goal. Once they do, they’ll understand how important other things are–and have always been. Joseph Brooks
• There must be more to life than having everything! Maurice Sendak
• This is why it’s a blessing to be rich and successful … it means you get to the point of realizing riches and success don’t mean a lot more quickly than those that don’t have them. John C. Parkin
• You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy. Eric Hoffer
• Happiness,  Unhappiness

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Why?  Because we quickly adapt to any increase in wealth or new possession and then want more

• Why does hedonic adaptation occur? The two biggest culprits are rising aspirations (e.g. the bigger house you buy after your windfall feels natural after a while; you experience a kind of “creeping normalcy” and begin to want an even bigger one) and social comparison (e.g. your new friends in the neighbourhood are driving BMWs and you feel you should too).  As a result, even as people amass more of what they want with every year, their overall happiness tends to stay the same.  Sonja Lyubomirsky
• Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it. There is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of its filling a vacuum, it makes one. Ben Franklin
• The man with a toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. The poverty- stricken man makes the same mistake about the rich man. George Bernard Shaw
• The research study revealed that less than a year after winning, lottery ticket winners reported being no more happy than regular folks who had not experienced the sudden windfall. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• We humans are unhappy in large part because we are insatiable; after working hard to get what we want, we routinely lose interest in the object of our desire. Rather than feeling satisfied, we feel a bit bored, and in response to this boredom, we go on to form new, even grander desires. Consider studies of lottery winners. Winning a lottery typically allows someone to live the life of his dreams. It turns out, though, that after an initial period of exhilaration, lottery winners end up about as happy as they previously were. They start taking their new Ferrari and mansion for granted, the way they previously took their rusted- out pickup and cramped apartment for granted. William B. Irvine
• We’re constantly going after the next “thing” that we think is going to make us happy—whether that’s the new car or new house or new spouse or whatever—forgetting the fact that happiness is an inside game! Brian Johnson

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Wanting is something that “having” can never cure…

• Wanting is something “having” cannot cure. Joe Fortenberry
• Although they posses enough, and more than enough still they yearn for more.  Ovid
• Consumer culture makes us constantly aware of what we do not have. Aaron Freeman
• Desires, in contrast, can never be satisfied. Once we get what we crave, we soon find it less satisfying than we expected, so we strive for something else. The only escape from this perpetual wheel of want is to discover the contentment and perfection we already have. Gillian Stokes
• Furthermore, the more you have the more you want, and you are stuck in a state of “wanting- ness,” and there is no lasting satisfaction in this circular cycle. Being in a state of “wanting- ness” creates suffering. Bear in mind, having cravings or a desire for anything that belongs in the physical world is not a source of happiness; instead these cravings are a source of unhappiness. It is not the lack of something that is behind your unhappiness; instead your craving is the root cause behind your unhappiness. Sampo Kaasila
• How much is enough? Just a little bit more. John D. Rockefeller
• Money never made a man happy yet, nor will it… The more a man has, the more he wants. Instead of filling a vacuum, it makes one. Benjamin Franklin
• Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little. Epicurus
• Paradoxically, what keeps the so-called consumer society going is the fact that trying to find yourself through things doesn’t work: The ego satisfaction is short-lived and so you keep looking for more, keep buying, keep consuming. Eckhart Tolle
• Riches enlarge rather than satisfy appetites. Thomas Fuller
• The pleasure of expecting enjoyment is often greater than that of obtaining it, and the completion of almost every wish is found a disappointment. Samuel Johnson
• There is never enough in the world to satisfy the dissatisfied heart. Christina Feldman
• To be content with little is difficult; to be content with much, impossible. Marie von Ebner- Eschenbach

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…for wealth and possessions cannot meet our deepest needs

• The accumulation of material possessions, which I refer to by the technical term of “stuff,” doesn’t feed the soul. It doesn’t matter how much stuff you accumulate; it won’t satisfy your spiritual nature. Stuff is like junk food to the soul, and just as junk food won’t nurture your body, neither will accumulating more stuff. Brad Swift
• Don’t think you can fill an emptiness in your heart with money   Jackson Brown, Jr.
• I have learned that the greatest things…….in life ‘are not’ things at all. W. Fortney
• Money can’t buy me love. Paul McCarthney
• Money cannot buy peace of mind. It cannot heal ruptured relationships, or build meaning into a life that has none.  Richard M. DeVos
• Money is not required to buy one necessity of the soul. Henry David Thoreau
• Money may be the husk of many things, but not the kernel. It brings you food, but not appetite; medicine, but not health; acquaintances, but not friends; servants, but not faithfulness; days of joy, but not peace or happiness. Henrik Ibsen
• Money will buy a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy the wag of his tail. Josh Billings
• Money will buy you a bed, but not a good night’s sleep, a house but not a home, a companion but not a friend. Zig Ziglar
• Money will buy you a fine dog, but only love can make it wag its tail. Richard Friedman
• Money will buy you a pretty good dog, but it won’t buy the wag of his tail. Henry Wheeler Shaw
• Money will not change how healthy you are or how many people love you.  Warren Buffett
• No matter how hard you hug your money, it never hugs back. Jackson Brown, Jr.
• No matter how hard you hug your money, it never hugs back. Jackson Brown Jr.
• Superfluous wealth can buy superfluities only. Henry David Thoreau
• There are people who have money and people who are rich. Coco Chanel
• Your soul is not from the world of form; this explains why the world of form cannot fully satisfy your soul. Sampo Kaasila
• Human needs

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The truth is you can never get enough of what you don’t need

• There’s never enough of the stuff you can’t get enough of. Patrick H.T. Doyle
• Wanting is something “having” cannot cure. Joe Fortenberry
• Wealth is like sea-water; the more we drink, the thirstier we become; the same is true of fame. Arthur Schopenhauer
• You can never get enough of what you don’t need to make you happy. Eric Hoffer
• You cannot get enough of what you don’t need, because what you don’t need won’t satisfy you.
• Desire,  Cravings

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When what you want cannot satisfy you, greed raises its head

• A greedy person and a pauper are practically one and the same. Swiss proverb
• Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed. Gandhi
• Greed is a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction.  Erich Fromm
• Greed is a fat demon with a small mouth and whatever you feed it is never enough. Janwillem Van de Wetering
• Greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs. Oxford Dictionary
• He does not possess wealth; it possesses him. Benjamin Franklin
• He who is greedy is always in want. Horace
• One of the weaknesses of our age is our apparent inability to distinguish our needs from our greeds.  Don Robinson
• There is never enough in the world to satisfy the dissatisfied heart. Christina Feldman
• Greed

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Research shows that materialism can actually make us less healthy and happy

• It seems that people who are the healthiest focus on developing satisfying personal relationships, growing as individuals, and contributing to their community. Surely, they also aspire to sufficient financial success to live comfortably. But wealth, fame, and beauty do not disproportionately occupy the consciousness of these people the way they dominate the experiences of individuals who are less psychologically stable. Edward L. Deci
• Materialists are generally less satisfied with their lives than folks who highly value love, friendships, and other worthwhile pursuits. It is generally good for your happiness to have money, but toxic to your happiness to want money too much. A high income can help happiness, but is no sure path to it. Ed Diener & Robert Biswas- Diener
• Not only does materialism not bring happiness, but it’s been shown to be a strong predictor of unhappiness. Sonja Lyubomirsky
• There is a burden of care in getting riches; fear in keeping them; temptation in using them; guilt in abusing them; sorrow in losing them; and a burden of account at last to be given concerning them. Matthew Henry
• Materialism,  Unhappiness

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This is an issue because money and consumerism has become something of a modern addiction

• A moderate addiction to money may not always be hurtful; but when taken in excess it is nearly always bad for the health. Clarence Day
• Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need. Tyler Durden, Fight Club (via author Chuck Phalanuick)
• In a consumer society there are inevitably two kinds of slaves: the prisoners of addiction and the prisoners of envy. Ivan Illich
• Money doesn’t mind if we say it’s evil, it goes from strength to strength. It’s a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit conspiracy. Martin Amis
• Those who have departed, after craving for temporary wealth, have returned home without this temporary wealth. Sri Guru Granth Sahib
• Consumerism,  Addiction

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The truth is that making a lot of money can come at a very high price

• How foolish to spend our youth chasing after wealth only to spend our wealth chasing after our youth. Robert Brault
• I cannot afford to waste my time making money. Louis Agassiz
• If you make money your god, it will plague you like the devil. Henry Fielding
• Life shouldn’t be printed on dollar bills. Clifford Odets
• Money is a wonderful thing, but it is possible to pay too high a price for it. Alexander Bloch
• Money often costs too much. Ralph Waldo Emerson
• So many people spend their health gaining wealth, and then have to spend their wealth to regain their health. J. Reb Materi
• The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. Henry David Thoreau
• The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it. Henry David Thoreau
• They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price. Kahlil Gibran
• Those who live by numbers can also perish by them and it is a terrifying thing to have an adding machine write an epitaph, either way. George J.W. Goodman
• You don’t really pay for things with money, you pay for them with time. In five years, I’ll have put enough away to buy that vacation house we want. Then I’ll slow down. That means the house will cost you five years – one-twelfth of your adult life. Translate the dollar value of the house, car, or anything else into time, and then see if it’s still worth it. Charles Spezzano

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Money can become a master

• I’ve been more bossed by my fortune than it has been bossed by me. John P. Lippett
• If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous person cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that may be said to possess him or her.  Francis Bacon
• If we command our wealth, we shall be rich and free. If our wealth commands us, we are poor indeed. Edmund Burke
• It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly. Bertrand Russell
• Make money your god and it will plague you like the devil. Henry Fielding
• Money is a good servant, but a poor master. Dominique Bouhours
• Riches are a good hand maiden, but a poor mistress. Francis Bacon
• The lust of avarice as so totally seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they possess their wealth. Pliny the Elder
• The only thing wealth does for some people is to make them worry about losing it. Antoine Rivarol
• There is nothing wrong with men possessing riches. The wrong comes when riches possess men. Billy Graham
• You see, we need instruction on how to possess money without being possessed by money. We need help to learn how to own things without treasuring them. We need the discipline that will allow us to live simply while managing great wealth and power. Richard Foster

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Money can corrupt

• Material abundance without character is the surest way to destruction. Thomas Jefferson
• Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men. Sydney J. Harris
• Money does not corrupt people. What corrupts people is lack of affection … Money is simply the bandage which wounded people put over their wounds. Margaret Halsey
• Money is the reward, but if it ever becomes the goal, you will lose sight of your dream and do things that make no one happy. The Statler Brothers
• Money should never be separated from values. Detached from values it may indeed be the root of all evil. Linked effectively to social purpose it can be the root of opportunity. Rosabeth Moss Kanter

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Money can separate you from others

• The penalty of affluence is that it cuts one off from the common lot, common experience, and common fellowship. In a sense it outlaws one automatically from one’s birthright of membership in the great human family. Arnold Toynbee
• When people have all the material things they need, they seem not to need each other. They are self- sufficient. There is no interdependence. There is no love. In a poor community, however, there is often a lot of mutual help and sharing of goods, as well as help from outside. Poverty can even become a cement of unity. Jean Vanier
• Connection

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On a lighter note

• All I ask is the chance to prove that money can’t make me happy. Spike Milligan
• All I want is more and more and more. Is that asking too much? Ashleigh Brilliant
• I don’t like money actually, but it quiets the nerves. Joe E. Lewis
• I want it all – and I want it delivered.
• It frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy. Groucho Marx
• It is pretty hard to tell what does bring happiness; poverty and wealth have both failed. Kin Hubbard
• Money can’t buy happiness but it can buy a huge yacht that sails right next to it. David Lee Roth
• Money can’t buy happiness, but it can buy you the kind of misery you prefer.
• Money can’t buy happiness, but it can make you awfully comfortable while you’re being miserable.  Clare Boothe Luce
• Money can’t buy happiness, but neither can poverty. Leo Rosten
• Money can’t buy happiness; it can, however, rent it.
• Money can’t buy you happiness but it does bring you a more pleasant form of misery. Spike Milligan
• Money can’t buy happiness – that’s why we have credit cards.
• Money doesn’t bring happiness, though it has been known to cause an occasional smile. Herb True
• Money doesn’t buy happiness but it allows you to rent it by the hour.
• Money doesn’t make you happy. I now have $50 million but I was just as happy when I had only $48 million. Arnold Schwarzenegger
• Money frees you from doing things you dislike. Since I dislike doing nearly everything, money is handy. Groucho Marx
• Money won’t make you happy… but everybody wants to find out for themselves. Zig Ziglar
• Money won’t buy happiness, but it will pay the salaries of a large research staff to study the problem. Bill Vaughan
• Money, if it does not bring you happiness, will at least help you be miserable in comfort. Helen Gurley Brown
• Money, it turned out, was exactly like sex, you thought of nothing else if you didn’t have it and thought of other things if you did. James Baldwin
• My formula for success is rise early, work late and strike oil. JP Getty
• They say it is better to be poor and happy than rich and miserable, but how about a compromise like moderately rich and just moody? Princess Diana
• To be clever enough to get all that money, one must be stupid enough to want it. K. Chesterton
• What’s the use of happiness? It can’t buy you money.  Henry Youngman
• Whoever opined “Money can’t buy you happiness” obviously had far too much of the stuff.” David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas
• Whoever said money can’t buy happiness simply didn’t know where to go shopping.  Bo Derek
• Whoever said money can’t buy happiness didn’t know where to shop.  Gertrude Stein
• You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?  Steven Wright