By luxury we condemn ourselves to greater torments than have yet been invented by anger or revenge, or inflicted by the greatest tyrants upon the orst of men.
—William Temple (1881–1944) British Clergyman, Theologian
Oh, brethren, it is sickening work to think of your cushioned seats, your chants, your anthems, your choirs, your organs, your gowns, and your bands, and I know not what besides, all made to be instruments of religious luxury, if not of pious dissipation, while ye need far more to be stirred up and incited to holy ardor for the propagation of the truth.as it is in Jesus.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
We act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements of life, when all that we need to make us really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.
—Charles Kingsley (1819–75) English Clergyman, Academic, Historian, Novelist
We read on the foreheads of those who are surrounded by a foolish luxury, that fortune sells what she is thought to give.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
Luxury must be comfortable, otherwise it is not luxury.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
I always thought I should be treated like a star.
—Madonna (b.1958) American Pop Singer, Actress
Sedition is bred in the lap of luxury and its chosen emissaries are the beggared spendthrift and the impoverished libertine.
—George Bancroft (1800–91) American Historian, Politician
Luxury and dissipation, soft and gentle as their approaches are, and silently as they throw their silken chains about the heart, enslave it more than the most active and turbulent vices.
—Hannah More
Then there is that glorious Epicurean paradox, uttered by my friend, the Historian in one of his flashing moments: Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–94) American Physician, Essayist
On the soft bed of luxury, most kingdoms have expired.
—Edward Young (1683–1765) English Poet
The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.
—Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British Actor
It was a shrewd saying, whoever said it, “That the man who first brought ruin on the Roman people was he who pampered them by largesses and amusements.”
—Plutarch (c.46–c.120 CE) Greek Biographer, Philosopher
The ultimate of being successful is the luxury of giving yourself the time to do what you want to do.
—Leontyne Price (b.1927) American Opera Singer
But the bravest man amongst us is afraid of himself. The mutilation of the savage has its tragic survival in the self-denial that mars our lives. We are punished for our refusals. Every impulse that we strive to strangle broods in the mind and poisons us. The body sins once, and has done with its sin, for action is a mode of purification. Nothing remains then but the recollection of a pleasure, or the luxury of a regret. The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Resist it, and your soul grows sick with longing for the things it has forbidden to itself, with desire for what its monstrous laws have made monstrous and unlawful. It has been said that the great events of the world take place in the brain. It is in the brain, and the brain only, that the great sins of the world take place also.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty.
—Socrates (469BCE–399BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher
Poverty wants some things, Luxury many things, Avarice all things.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
I love luxury. And luxury lies not in richness and ornateness but in the absence of vulgarity. Vulgarity is the ugliest word in our language. I stay in the game to fight it.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
All conservatives are such from personal defects. They have been effeminated by position or nature, born halt and blind, through luxury of their parents, and can only, like invalids, act on the defensive.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Utility is when you have one telephone, luxury is when you have two, opulence is when you have three—and paradise is when you have none.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
It is impossible to overdo luxury
—French Proverb
Luxury is a word of uncertain signification, and may be taken in a good as in a bad sense
—David Hume (1711–76) Scottish Philosopher, Historian
I know it is more agreeable to walk upon carpets than to lie upon dungeon floors, I know it is pleasant to have all the comforts and luxuries of civilization; but he who cares only for these things is worth no more than a butterfly, contented and thoughtless, upon a morning flower; and who ever thought of rearing a tombstone to a last summer’s butterfly?
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Sell not your liberty to gratify your luxury
—Indian Proverb
Where necessity ends, curiosity begins; and no sooner are we supplied with everything that nature can demand, than we sit down to contrive artificial appetites.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Luxury, so far as it reaches the people, will do good to the race of people; it will strengthen and multiply them. Sir, no nation was ever hurt by luxury; for, as I said before; it can reach but a very few.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Were the labor and capital, now spent on pernicious luxuries, to be employed in the intellectual, moral, and religious culture of the whole people, how immense would be the gain, in every respect, though for a short time material products were diminished. A better age will look back with wonder and scorn on the misdirected industry of the present times.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
Sincerity is the luxury allowed, like diadems and authority, only to the highest rank… . Every man alone is sincere. At the entrance of a second person, hypocrisy begins.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Learn the luxury of doing good.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Blest hour! It was a luxury—to be!
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
Uncompromising thought is the luxury of the closeted recluse.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Now we suffer the evils of a long peace; luxury more cruel than war broods over us and avenges a conquered world.
—Juvenal (c.60–c.136 CE) Roman Poet
Anger is an expensive luxury in which only men of a certain income can indulge.
—George William Curtis (1824–92) American Essayist, Public Speaker, Editor, Author
Luxury is the wolf at the door and its fangs are the vanities and conceits germinated by success. When an artist learns this, he knows where the danger is.
—Tennessee Williams (1911–83) American Playwright
Every luxury must be paid for, and everything is a luxury, starting with being in the world.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
Pain adds rest unto pleasure, and teaches the luxury of health.
—Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–89) English Poet, Writer
Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
Luxury, that alluring pest with fair forehead, which, yielding always to the will of the body, throws a deadening influence over the senses, and weakens the limbs more than the drugs of Circe’s cup.
—Claudian (c.370–c.404 CE) Roman Poet
The great majority of men, especially in France, both desire and possess a fashionable woman, much in the way one might own a fine horse—as a luxury befitting a young man.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (1783–1842) French Writer
He repents on thorns that sleeps in beds of roses.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
Luxury is an enticing pleasure, a bastard mirth, which hath honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and a sting in her tail.
—Francis Quarles (1592–1644) English Religious Poet
A slight daily unconscious luxury is hardly ever wanting to the dwellers in civilization; like the gentle air of a genial climate, it is a perpetual minute enjoyment.
—Walter Bagehot (1826–77) English Economist, Journalist
A point of view can be a dangerous luxury when substituted for insight and understanding.
—Marshall Mcluhan (1911–80) Canadian Writer, Thinker, Educator
Blesses his stars, and thinks it luxury.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
You cannot spend money in luxury without doing good to the poor. Nay, you do more good to them by spending it in luxury—you make them exert industry, whereas by giving it, you keep them idle.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Whenever vanity and gaiety, a love of pomp and dress, furniture, equipage, buildings, great company, expensive diversions, and elegant entertainments get the better of the principles and judgments of men and women, there is no knowing where they will stop, nor into what evils, natural, moral, or political, they will lead us.
—John Adams (1735–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Avarice and luxury, those pests which have ever been the ruin of every great state.
—Livy (Titus Livius) (59 BCE–17 CE) Roman Historian
The more various our artificial necessities, the wider is our circle of pleasure; for all pleasure consists in obviating necessities as they rise; luxury, therefore, as it increases our wants, increases our capacity for happiness
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Most of the luxuries and many of the so-called comforts of life are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The greatest luxury of riches is, that they enable you to escape so much good advice.
—Arthur Helps (1813–75) English Dramatist, Essayist