Consumerism Quotes

I bought Windows 2.0, Windows 3.0, Windows 3.1415926, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows RSVP, The Best of Windows, Windows Strikes Back, Windows Does Dallas, and Windows Let's All Buy Bill Gates a House the Size of Vermont.

And now, the Superstore - unequaled in size, unmatched in variety, unrivaled inconvenience.

They take great pride in making their dinner cost much; I take my pride in making my dinner cost so little.

American invents everything, but the trouble is we get tired of it the minute the new is wore off.

Beauty has been stolen from the people and is being sold back to them as luxury.

When fascism comes to America, it will not be in brown and black shirts. It will not be with jack-boots. It will be Nike sneakers and Smiley shirts. Germany lost the Second World War. Fascism won it. Believe me, my friend.

I hate turkeys. If you stand in the meat section at the grocery store long enough, you start to get mad at turkeys. There's turkey ham, turkey bologna, turkey pastrami. Some one needs to tell the turkey, 'man, just be yourself.'

Unless you live in Indonesia, there should be several malls within five miles of your home. It makes no difference whatsoever which one you go to: Under federal law, all malls in the United States must have the same 42 chain stores.

I have come to a resolution myself as I hope every good citizen will, never again to purchase any article of foreign manufacture which can be had of American make, be the difference of price what it may.

The case wouldn't be overweight if you didn't have so many shoes. How many do you really need? This pair, for example, I swear you never even wore them.

The world says: "You have needs - satisfy them. You have as much right as the rich and the mighty. Don't hesitate to satisfy your needs; indeed, expand your needs and demand more." This is the worldly doctrine of today. And they believe that this is freedom. The result for the rich is isolation and suicide, for the poor, envy and murder.

At the end of the day, the question to ask yourself is this: do your expenses, big and small, bring you the thrill they once did?

I wish we didn't live in a world where buying and selling things seems to have become almost more important than either producing or using them.

Advertising is the art of convincing people to spend money they don't have for something they don't need.

I sort of gave up on this whole human adventure a long time ago, divorced myself from it emotionally. It gives me an artistic detachment that I find valuable. I think the human race has squandered its gift, and I think this country has squandered its promise, for the sake of cell phones and Jet Skis.

The average person is full of artificial desires, desires that have been suggested by what other people possess or require.

The American success formula is first to get a home of your own, then to get a car of your own so you don't have to stay in that home of your own.

I will buy any creme, cosmetic, or elixir from a woman with a European accent.

I end up not buying a lot of things, because I find them ridiculous.

Happiness is not in money, but in shopping.

You know what I like about the American form of government? They've worked things out so that you're never far from a 7-Eleven.

When we die, the money we can't keep, But we probably spend it all 'cause the pain ain't cheap...

It was our love of foreign cloth that ousted the wheel from its position of dignity.

TV is the rat race of the century.

You're really spread out now, you've got stuff all over the WORLD! You've got stuff at home, stuff in storage, stuff in Honolulu, stuff in Maui, stuff in your pockets...supply lines are getting longer and harder to maintain.

I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.

A bargain is something you have to find a use for once you have bought it.

When you're young, you look at television and think, there's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down. But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want.

Advertisers constantly invent cures to which there is no disease.

You know, you keep on innovating, you keep on making better stuff. And if you always want the latest and greatest, then you have to buy a new iPod at least once a year.

I have damaged my intellect trying to imagine why a man should want to invent a repeating clock, and how another man could be found to lust after it and buy it. The man who can guess these riddles is far on the way to guess why the human race was invented - which is another riddle which tires me.

Pride is as loud a beggar as want, and a great deal more saucy. When you have bought one fine thing, you must buy ten more, that your appearance may be all of a piece; but it is easier to suppress the first desire than to satisfy all that follow it.

It is a good idea to 'shop around' before you settle on a doctor. Ask about the condition of his Mercedes. Ask about the competence of his mechanic. Don't be shy! After all, you're paying for it.

Our necessities are few, but our wants are endless.

Young wives are the leading asset of corporate power. They want the suburbs, a house, a settled life, and respectability. They want society to see that they have exchanged themselves for something of value.

We are the first nation in the history of the world to go to the poorhouse in an automobile.

Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over your body

We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.

The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one.

We only need so much to survive, but this world we live in tells us we need more stuff to be happy. We're inundated with our televisions, the Internet and advertising that says in order to be happy you have to have these things. When you say, 'Gimme, gimme, gimme,' you will always be in short supply.

You show me something that doesn't cause cancer, and I'll show you something that isn't on the market yet.

Whenever you see the word cuisine used instead of the word food, be prepared to pay an additional eighty percent.

When the farmer has got his house, he may not be the richer but the poorer for it, and it be the house that has got him... a man is rich in proportion to the number of things which he can afford to let alone.

I rationalize shop. I buy a dress because I need change for gum.

We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values.

Our country has plenty of five-cent cigars, but the trouble is they charge fifteen cents for them.

Never buy a thing you don't want merely because it is dear.

Americans have been conditioned to respect newness, whatever it costs them.

American consumers have no problem with carcinogens, but they will not purchase any product, including floor wax, that has fat in it.

I'm offering a special prize for the first Buick on the moon.

It is not the lowest priced goods that are always the cheapest - the quality is, or ought to be as much an object with the purchaser, as the price.

I buy everything from CostCo. It's great; they've got everything I need.

We have been just going like a house afire, and we couldent see any reason why we shouldent keep right on burning. Our tastes were acquired on credit, and we wanted to keep on enjoying 'em on credit.

The only thing high-definition television will do is provide sharper images of the garbage.

A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.

I just saw an ad the other day that I couldn't believe. There was this woman-and I think it's degrading to womankind-she was going out of her mind over a new product called "A Thousand Flushes." Here she was in her toilet, saying, "Oh, I love this product!" and, "My life is complete!" Good God-if your joy depends on "A Thousand Flushes," you're sick!

We've been sold a concept of joy through advertising. It was somehow sold to us through a Gucci bag or something.

People have material needs, but you don't need a deodorant for every different day of the week. You don't need four hundred varieties of mustard. This is what I call too many choices. There are too many choices in America.

The world is a puzzling place today. All these banks sending us credit cards, with our names on them. Well, we didn't order any credit cards! We don't spend what we don't have. So we just cut them in half and throw them out, just as soon as we open them in the mail. Imagine a bank sending credit cards to two ladies over a hundred years old! What are those folks thinking?

... Once you're safely in the mall, you should tie your children to you with ropes so the other shoppers won't try to buy them. Holiday shoppers have been whipped into a frenzy by months of holiday advertisements, and they will buy anything small enough to stuff into a shopping bag. If your children object to being tied, threaten to take them to see Santa Claus; that ought to shut them up.