MATERIALISM
If we lack basic nutrients in our diet we suffer malnutrition. The cure is simple: take vitamin tablets to insure you get the minimum level. Once the minimum is reached, however, additional tablets have little or no benefit. Unfortunately some people apply this logic: “If a little was good, a lot will be better.” This simply is not true and in some cases is dangerous. On occasion people have even lost their lives from overdoses of vitamin A.
Sadly, this is often the case with earning money. If at one point we lacked money for basic necessities, then money—when it finally came—was a blessing. But many have applied the logic “If a little was good, a lot will be better.” Many have lost their lives this way!854
The story is told of a man who was given a tour of one of the most impressive homes in a particular city. The rooms seemed to go on without end, and each one was more wonderful than the one before it. Marble, gold, and fine woods were everywhere. Finally the visitor was asked how he liked the house. He replied, “These are the things that make dying hard.”
For those who have seen only the beauty of this world and who do not long for the beauty of that to come, dying is indeed hard.855
If you have something you can’t live without, you don’t own it; it owns you.856
Materialism has nothing to do with amount, it has everything to do with attitude.857
In this world there are only two tragedies. One is not getting what you want. The other is getting it.858
Someone has intuitively stated, “A bargain is something you cannot use, at a price you cannot resist!”859
The fly lands on the flypaper and says, “My flypaper,” while the flypaper says, “My fly.”860
An extremely rich real-estate tycoon in Dallas once said, “If you go into business with the idea of erecting an empire, all you do is make yourself a nicer cage. You’re a prisoner of the monster you created. It’s lonely.”861
The story of a butterfly named Maculinea arion is most instructive. The creature lays its eggs on a plant, and after feeding on the plant for several weeks, the young caterpillar makes its way to the ground. In order to complete its development, it must meet a certain kind of ant. When such an ant meets the caterpillar, the ant strokes it with its antennae, and the caterpillar exudes a sweet fluid from a special gland on its tenth segment. Apparently the ant likes this substance, because it then carries the caterpillar home to its nest. There the ants drink the sweet fluid exuded by the caterpillar, and the caterpillar feasts on larval ants. The caterpillar spends the winter in a special cavity of the ant’s nest, and in the spring it continues eating young ants. Eventually it emerges as an adult butterfly and flies away to establish more of its kind. And the cycle starts all over again.
Some people are not much different from the ants. For you see, they cherish a luxury item to the injury of themselves.862
The preacher came over to visit unexpectedly. Wanting to make a good impression, the lady of the house instructed her little daughter, “Please run and get that good book we all love so much and bring it here.”
The daughter tottered off and then returned in a minute with triumph on her face and the Sears catalogue in her hands!863
An anonymous writer tells about an American tourist’s visit to the nineteenth-century Polish rabbi Hofetz Chaim:
Astonished to see that the rabbi’s home was only a simple room filled with books, plus a table and a bench, the tourist asked, “Rabbi, where is your furniture?”
“Where is yours?” replied the rabbi.
“Mine?” asked the puzzled American. “But I’m a visitor here. I’m only passing through.”
“So am I,” said Hofetz Chaim.864
John M. Keynes was the founder of the modern study of economics. He realized that worldly prosperity could come about only through a corruption of the moral laws. To bring this prosperity to full operation in the world Lord Keynes is credited with the following quote: “If we are to succeed, we must call good bad and bad good for a little while longer.”865
When John D. Rockefeller died, one man was curious about how much he left behind. Determined to find out, he set up an appointment with one of Rockefeller’s highest aides and asked, “How much did Rockefeller leave behind?”
The aide answered, “All of it.”866