Roald Dahl Quotes

If I go to the department store, I get no excitement: I can buy the entire department store instead of one bag. So I lost excitement of shopping.

I had the notion that, OK, so now we have all of this wealth, we could buy not only one expensive car, we could buy all of them. As soon as you realize that you could buy all of them, then none of them are particularly interesting or satisfying.

I remember opening my dad's closet and there were, like, 40 suits, every color of the rainbow, plaid and winter and summer. He had two jewelry boxes full of watches and lighters and cuff links. And just... he was that guy. He was probably unfulfilled in his life in many ways.

Seeing so much of the same thing suppresses the desire to buy.

Are these things really better than the things I already have? Or am I just trained to be dissatisfied with what I have now?

Our desires have a way of getting bigger with our incomes.

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

Man needs so little... yet he begins wanting so much.

The Christmas presents once opened are Not So Much Fun as they were while we were in the process of examining, lifting, shaking, thinking about, and opening them. Three hundred sixty-five days later, we try again and find that the same thing has happened. Each time the goal is reached, it becomes Not So Much Fun, and we're off to reach the next one, then the next one, then the next.

Men have come to such a pass that they frequently starve, not for want of necessaries, but for want of luxuries.

Avarice and luxury, those evils which have been the ruin of every great state.

Bare-faced covetousness was the moving spirit of civilization from its first dawn to the present day; wealth, and again wealth, and for the third time wealth; wealth, not of society, but of the puny individual, was its only and final aim.

The more wants a man has, the less freedom.

A Society in which the people's wants do not exceed their possessions is not a Socialist society.

Technical progress and more comfortable living permit the systematic inclusion of libidinal components into the realm of commodity production and exchange. But no matter how controlled the mobilization of instinctual energy may be (it sometimes amounts to a scientific management of libido), no matter how much it may serve as a prop for the status quo - it is also gratifying to the managed individuals, just as racing the outboard motor, pushing the power lawn mower, and speeding the automobile are fun.

I love everything [Jessica Simpson] ever has on! Jessica can definitely come pick me up in her little Mercedes and take me shopping if she wants!

How few our real wants, and how vast our imaginary ones!

I wasn't big in the party scene but I did have an excessive lifestyle. I had much more than I needed. I think that was a manifestation of a certain kind of mental illness.

Rich people making their houses bigger in order to make their lives happier wind up hurting their own marriages. There's a deep irony here. Do the couples perceive that irony?

Anything that makes us forget who we are and what we want; that way we can work in order to produce, reproduce, and earn money.

Certainly, possessions, money, and power can give a momentary thrill, the illusion of being happy, but they end up possessing us and making us always want to have more, never satisfied. ‘Put on Christ’ in your life, place your trust in him, and you will never be disappointed!

I've been spoiled being in the fashion business. My son will be like, 'Mommy, 20 new pairs of shoes came today. How come?' Because I'm always telling him it's not normal to have 20 pairs of tennis shoes to try on before school.

We are taught to want a thing. We are taught that having that thing will make us happy. We are taught that having it immediately is the answer. We are taught a corrupted version of success. And love.

Luxury either comes of riches or makes them necessary; it corrupts at once rich and poor, the rich by possession and the poor by covetousness.

What I do see in New York and I am amazed is how many rich women will complain about the cost of something and get things for free.I would never want to be like them, but I can see why they save money.