quotes tagged with 'materialism' 
People were horrified when General Barrows, at the time president of the University of California at Berkeley, bluntly proclaimed at a commencement exercise, "The only reason anyone goes to college is to increase his earning power." I was petrified by the statement, little realizing that the time would come that it would be treated by everyone as a universally accepted truism and even an idealistic proclamation.
We can have His Spirit by keeping that covenant. First, we promise to take His name upon us. That means we must see ourselves as His. We will put Him first in our lives. We will want what He wants rather than what we want or what the world teaches us to want. As long as we love the things of the world first, there will be no peace in us. Holding an ideal for a family or a nation of comfort through material goods will, at last, divide them. The ideal of doing for each other what the Lord would have us do, which follows naturally from taking His name upon us, can take us to a spiritual level which is a touch of heaven on earth.
I am afraid that many of us have been surfeited with flocks and herds and acres and barns and wealth and have begun to worship them as false gods, and they have power over us. Do we have more of these good things than our faith can stand?
It’s no safer to say that spiritual urges and sensations are caused by brain activity than it is to say that the neurological changes through which we experience the pleasure of eating an apple cause the apple to exist. … There is no way to determine whether the neurological changes associated with spiritual experience mean that the brain is causing those experiences … or is instead perceiving a spiritual reality
Author: Andrew Newburg, Source: http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/040216neurotheology.htmlBYU 21st Stake Goals
STAY ON THE PATH - 1 Nephi 8:20
1 - Study the scriptures each day and read each month's Ensign, seeking to develop spiritual strength & wisdom
2-Pray vocally with sincerity and faith each morning and night, and always have a prayer in your heart.
3-Keep the entire Sabbath day holy, attend all church meetings, and renew your spiritual covenants.
4-Magnify your church callings, fully sustain all others in their callings, and help build the Kingdom of God.
5- Pay tithes and offerings, manage money wisely, avoid materalism and needless debt, and be self-reliant.
6- Attend the temple frequently, keep all temple covenants, and work to unite an seal all members of your family.
7- Earnestly seek to find and love a righteous companion, and worthily prepare to create a strong eternal family.
8- Keep your mind clean and virtuous, and avoid all media that offends and drives away the Spirit.
9- Treat your body as the temple of your spirit, dress modestly, avoid immoral behavior, and maintain good health.
10 - Organize yourself, establish proper priorities, and find way to do good and serve others.
Author: BYU 21st Stake Presidency, Source: Stake Conference BYU21st Stake - October 3 & 4, 2007STAY ON THE PATH - 1 Nephi 8:20
1 - Study the scriptures each day and read each month's Ensign, seeking to develop spiritual strength & wisdom
2-Pray vocally with sincerity and faith each morning and night, and always have a prayer in your heart.
3-Keep the entire Sabbath day holy, attend all church meetings, and renew your spiritual covenants.
4-Magnify your church callings, fully sustain all others in their callings, and help build the Kingdom of God.
5- Pay tithes and offerings, manage money wisely, avoid materalism and needless debt, and be self-reliant.
6- Attend the temple frequently, keep all temple covenants, and work to unite an seal all members of your family.
7- Earnestly seek to find and love a righteous companion, and worthily prepare to create a strong eternal family.
8- Keep your mind clean and virtuous, and avoid all media that offends and drives away the Spirit.
9- Treat your body as the temple of your spirit, dress modestly, avoid immoral behavior, and maintain good health.
10 - Organize yourself, establish proper priorities, and find way to do good and serve others.
Many things, in fact most, are interesting, and many are enticing. But some things are important. The limits of time dictate that we must prioritize what we do. The divinely given and heaven-protected gift of agency allows us to determine to what degree we will serve others and allow them to serve us. The depth of involvement in that which is important, rather than just interesting, is our own choice.
As we make these choices, we might consider that the glitter and excitement of festive, fun-filled projects are interesting, but the shut-ins, the lonely, the handicapped, the homeless, the latchkey kids, and the abandoned aged are important.
Worldly magazines, tabloids, and much of the multi-mass media mess of fast-track information we are receiving is interesting and enticing, but the scriptures are important.
The RVs and the TVs and retirement ease make it interesting to wander and play, but people’s needs for selfless deeds are important. There is concern that “wander and play” have replaced “ponder and pray.”
A focus on fashion and getting and spending and the accumulation of things for our enjoyment and comfort is interesting and enticing, but a focus on devoting one’s means and time and one’s very self to the cause of proclaiming the gospel is important.
The meetings and materials and planning are all interesting, but the doing is important.
With the constant exhortation to come unto Christ is the promise that we can be perfected in him. If we do all that we can do by loving and serving God with all of our might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for us. By his grace, after all that we can do, we may become perfect in Christ. Shall we not then strive for the recognition of that Almighty God who is our Father, through our selfless service?
“And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
“Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:34–37).
Author: Elder William R. Bradford, Source: “Selfless Service,” Ensign, Nov 1987, 75: http://www.lds.org/...As we make these choices, we might consider that the glitter and excitement of festive, fun-filled projects are interesting, but the shut-ins, the lonely, the handicapped, the homeless, the latchkey kids, and the abandoned aged are important.
Worldly magazines, tabloids, and much of the multi-mass media mess of fast-track information we are receiving is interesting and enticing, but the scriptures are important.
The RVs and the TVs and retirement ease make it interesting to wander and play, but people’s needs for selfless deeds are important. There is concern that “wander and play” have replaced “ponder and pray.”
A focus on fashion and getting and spending and the accumulation of things for our enjoyment and comfort is interesting and enticing, but a focus on devoting one’s means and time and one’s very self to the cause of proclaiming the gospel is important.
The meetings and materials and planning are all interesting, but the doing is important.
With the constant exhortation to come unto Christ is the promise that we can be perfected in him. If we do all that we can do by loving and serving God with all of our might, mind, and strength, then is his grace sufficient for us. By his grace, after all that we can do, we may become perfect in Christ. Shall we not then strive for the recognition of that Almighty God who is our Father, through our selfless service?
“And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it.
“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?
“Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” (Mark 8:34–37).
Work less, wear less, eat less, and we shall be a great deal wiser, healthier, and wealthier people
Author: Brigham Young, Source: Journal of Discourses 12:122One man has his eye on a gold mine, . . . another for selling his cattle, . . . another to get a farm, or building here and there, and trading and trafficking with each other, just like Babylon. . . . Babylon is here, and we are following in the footsteps of the inhabitants of the earth, who are in a perfect sea of confusion. Do you know this? You ought to, for there are none of you but what see it daily
Author: Brigham Young, Source: Journal of Discourses 8:125I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it's not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time.
Author: Mohandas Ghandi, Source: unknownI am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a "thing-oriented" society to a "person-oriented" society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.
Author: Martin Luther King, Jr, Source: Speech at Riverside Church in New York City (4 April 1967)Can't find a good quote on materialism? Try searching ScriptureTag!