The media is constantly redefining what luxury is. Luxury can be a dirty sock if dressed up in the right way.
—Zac Posen (b.1980) American Fashion Designer
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) English Theologian, Archbishop
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
Morality is a private and costly luxury.
—Henry Adams (1838–1918) American Historian, Man of Letters
We see the pernicious effects of luxury in the ancient Romans, who immediately found themselves poor as soon as this vice got footing among them.
—Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English Essayist, Poet, Playwright, Politician
A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return.
—Salman Rushdie (b.1947) Indian-born British Novelist
Pain adds rest unto pleasure, and teaches the luxury of health.
—Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–89) English Poet, Writer
Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competency lives longer.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Under the rules of a society that cannot distinguish between profit and profiteering, between money defined as necessity and money defined as luxury, murder is occasionally obligatory and always permissible.
—Lewis H. Lapham (1935–2024) American Journalist, Author, Long-time Editor of Harper’s Magazine
Unless we are accustomed to them from early youth, splendid chambers and elegant furniture had best be left to people who neither have nor can have any thoughts.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
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
We live in an age when unnecessary things are our only necessities.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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) 2nd US President, Founding Father, Statesman
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
Fell luxury! more perilous to youth than storms or quicksands, poverty or chains.
—Hannah More
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
What think you, if he were conveyed to bed, Wrapped in sweet clothes, rings put upon his fingers, A most delicious banquet by his bed, And brave attendants near him when he wakes, Would not the beggar then forget himself?
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
The saddest thing I can imagine is to get used to luxury.
—Charlie Chaplin (1889–1977) British Actor
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
One must be poor to know the luxury of giving.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
It was luxuries like air conditioning that brought down the Roman Empire. With air conditioning their windows were shut, they couldn’t hear the barbarians coming.
—Garrison Keillor (b.1942) American Author, Humorist, Radio Personality
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
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
Luxury ruins republics; poverty, monarchies.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries.
—John Lothrop Motley (1814–77) American Historian, Diplomat
It is impossible to overdo luxury.
—French 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
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
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
I always thought I should be treated like a star.
—Madonna (b.1958) American Pop Singer, Actress
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