Materialism Versus Spiritualism Quotes

“Shapeshifting requires the ability to transcend your attachments, in particular your ego attachments to identity and who you are. If you can get over your attachment to labeling yourself and your cherishing of your identity, you can be virtually anybody. You can slip in and out of different shells, even different animal forms or deity forms.”
― Zeena Schreck

“We live among ruins in a World in which ‘god is dead’ as Nietzsche stated. The ideals of today are comfort, expediency, surface knowledge, disregard for one’s ancestral heritage and traditions, catering to the lowest standards of taste and intelligence, apotheosis of the pathetic, hoarding of material objects and possessions, disrespect for all that is inherently higher and better — in other words
a complete inversion of true values and ideals, the raising of the victory flag of ignorance and the banner of degeneracy. In such a time, social decadence is so widespread that it appears as a natural component of all political institutions. The crises that dominate the daily lives of our societies are part of a secret occult war to remove the support of spiritual and traditional values in order to turn man into a passive instrument of dark powers.

The common ground of both Capitalism and Socialism is a materialistic view of life and being. Materialism in its war with the Spirit has taken on many forms; some have promoted its goals with great subtlety, whilst others have done so with an alarming lack of subtlety, but all have added, in greater or lesser measure, to the growing misery of Mankind. The forms which have done the most damage in our time may be enumerated as: Freemasonry, Liberalism, Nihilism, Capitalism, Socialism, Marxism, Imperialism, Anarchism, Modernism and the New Age.”
― Seyyed Hossein Nasr

“Thoughts don't become things; thoughts ARE things.”
― Eric Micha'el Leventhal

“You can never have too much money.”
― Jess C. Scott, Poor Little Rich Dude

“The Gnostic’s passionate adoration of Sophia was known as philosophia – the love of Sophia – a mystical communication with divine feminine wisdom, having little to do with the strictly intellectual, most often masculine, pursuit currently labeled “philosophy.”
― Zeena Schreck

“9. The Moon Cannot Be Stolen

Ryokan, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of the mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut only to discover there was nothing in it to steal.

Ryokan returned and caught him. "You may have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift."

Ryokan sat naked, watching the moon. "Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could give him this beautiful moon.”
― Nyogen Senzaki and Paul Reps

“Matter is indeed infinitely and incredibly refined. To anyone who has ever looked on the face of a dead child or parent the mere fact that matter could have taken for a time that precious form, ought to make matter sacred ever after. It makes no difference what the principle of life may be, material or immaterial, matter at any rate cooperates, lends itself to all life's purposes. That beloved incarnation was among matter's possibilities.”
― William James, Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking

“It is wiser to love who you are than what you want.”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru

“… an Emperor says, "I will kill you if you do not come", and the man bursts into a laugh and says, "You never told such a falsehood in your life, as you tell just now. Who can kill me? Me you kill, Emperor of the material world! Never! For I am Spirit unborn and undecaying; never was I born and never do I die; I am the Infinite, the Omnipresent, the Omniscient; and you kill me, child that you are!" That is strength, that is strength!”
― Swami Vivekananda, The Complete Works of Swami Vivekananda, Volume 3

“Life is less a burden without an absolute quest for material possessions”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Ever since he'd given up money, certain people had called him a freeloader, a parasite. (As one comment-thread malapropist put it: "Do you Believe you are smooching off others?") They demanded to know what he was giving back. To which Suelo asked, Who says you need to give something back? What does a raven give? What does a barnacle give, or a coyote? In his view, every living thing gave plenty, merely by existing. But from a strictly materialistic view, his critics had an excellent point. A raven contributes nothing, except of course his own corpse, which will feed some other being. Now Suelo was dying, and he offered his body to the ravens, the coyotes, the ringtails, the mice, the ants.”
― Mark Sundeen, The Man Who Quit Money

“The wisdom of nature continues to teach humanity that the material...is immaterial.”
― Jason Versey

“Money is a good weapon against the scum and is of no consequence to the noble mind. - On Money.”
― Lamine Pearlheart, To Life from the Shadows: Conversations with the Light

“...a person's value does not rest on outward appearances, but on his true merits, what he really is.”
― Jorge Amado, Dona Flor and Her Two Husbands

“i don’t care what you see, or what you say.
path of love’s a pipe dream anyway.
my daimon turns demon from today
now i want the glory and finer things.

sell my soul, the owner, the highest bid
reap the things you sow, i’m a change my ways.
now watch me transform to a higher place
your love’s a thorn, the roses now decay.

so i—
sign on the dotted line
Satan’s paper signed
Lucifer’s bonfire warming up my desire

i want the vanity —
i want the money, the women
this is the bourgeoise rhapsody”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Letter 19

“The greatest spiritual challenge is an attachment to material things. Even the most dedicated spiritual practice is meaningless when we are controlled by what we own.”
― Anthon St. Maarten

“The pursuit of possession could lead to an overwhelming emptiness.”
― Anoir Ou-Chad

“The Mind is chained to the material existence. The Heart goes beyond.”
― Anoir Ou-Chad

“We've given our power over to the material world because it seems more quantifiable and manageable. Our conversations start there, and our conclusions about the world end there. The infinite, miraculous, mysterious nature of who and what we are has become a bit tedious.”
― Madeleine Ryan, A Room Called Earth

“As we approach the limits of reasonable consumption, the cult of the standard of life must end up in disillusionment and eventual repugnance.”
― Wilhelm Röpke, A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market

“The world is saltwater. The more you drink, the thirstier you get”
― Atef Ashab Uddin Sahil

“There is a minor difference between materialistic and spiritual desires. A person having spiritual desires is seeking peace. A person materialistic desires is seeking comfort and luxuries to satisfy his ego and lust. Both can get angry if their desires are not met, there are no exceptions. The only difference is that a spiritual person can use his spiritual intelligence to manage his anger, while the person in the materialistic clutches has no choice but to express it.”
― Sukant Ratnakar, Quantraz

“The materialist interpretation of the world and of science itself is protected not by the facts or by the data of our honest experiences, but by what is essentially social and professional peer pressure, something more akin to the grade-school playground or high school prom. The world is preserved through eyes rolling back, snide remarks, arrogant smirks and subtle, or not so subtle, social cues, and a kind of professional (or conjugal) shaming.”
― Jeffrey J. Kripal, The Flip: Epiphanies of Mind and the Future of Knowledge

“Today, many of us seem to live our lives like honeybees collecting honey which, at the end, we will leave to others for their enjoyment! Our values are often twisted. Our success is largely measured by the size of our bank account, how beautiful or handsome we are, or how luxurious are our homes, cars or boats. Reality TV shows continue to appeal to millions of us who choose to live vicariously through others, rather than taking charge of our own lives and focusing on manifesting the hidden resources that are invested in our souls.
Women are often encouraged to seek superficial and temporary beauty, at the risk of endangering their health, even killing themselves, while men are encouraged to appreciate and chase a life of pleasure. In contrast, those whose lives are centered on spirituality are frequently ridiculed as old-fashioned or at least looked down upon. We seek surgical procedures to fight the natural aging process and enjoy ‘borrowed youth’ a bit longer, even though we know, deep in our hearts, that it is ultimately a losing battle.”
― Farnaz Masumian, The Divine Art Of Meditation: Meditation and visualization techniques for a healthy mind, body and soul

“The physical universe is an unresolvable dilemma to the materialist because he or she insists on trying to decipher it in terms of its own makeup. Nothing can be explained in terms of itself, but only when shown in the light of a greater totality. As the saying goes, 'You cannot see the forest from the trees.' You need somehow to step out and back from some event to put it in proper perspective. Therefore, in addition, to understand the physical world, you have to take a step back. However, where do we step? All the last steps were in the physical world. There are no more steps available. This is where Spirit becomes a feasible possibility. Spirit is the dimension you can enter to see the physical world in some perspective.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“Perhaps they exist but I have never met an angel who was dressed in a fine suit.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman

“It is economism to allow material gain to obscure the danger that we may forfeit liberty, variety, and justice and that the concentration of power may grow, and it is also economism to forget that people do not live by cheaper vacuum cleaners alone but by other and higher things which may wither in the shadows of giant industries and monopolies.”
― Wilhelm Röpke, A Humane Economy: The Social Framework of the Free Market

“Material means that hide man's meanness fail to reflect his moral richness.”
― B.S. Murthy

“There are some mysteries which the Universe does not yield to us mortals. For the hardened astrology sceptic, mystery is the enemy, an opponent that must be subjugated. If the sceptic cannot extract narrowly rational answers from the stuff of the Universe, the matter is dropped due to lack of scientific evidence. It's been said that if the only tool you possess is a hammer, you go around treating everything as if it were a nail.
- from How Astrology Works”
― James Lynn Page, How Astrology Works: A Professional Stargazer Speaks Out!

“Certainly in our world, so driven by aggressive corporate and materialist values, can afford to let people with alternative viewpoints have a place to be alternative.”
― Rick Steves, For the Love of Europe: My Favorite Places, People, and Stories