Consumption Quotes

• Infinite growth of material consumption in a finite world is an impossibility.

  E. F. Schumacher

  Courage, Organization, Simplicity

  E.F. Schumacher (1975). “Small is Beautiful”

  30 Copy quote

  Show source

• A reduction in meat consumption is the most powerful single act that you can take to halt the destruction of our environment and preserve our natural resources.

  John Robbins

  Powerful, Meat Consumption, Vegetarian

  28 Copy quote

• Be a good example and a positive ambassador for vegan living, and be patient and understanding with people who aren't vegan. Support any move non-vegans make away from animal consumption toward plant-based eating. Nurture even small positive steps, as these tend to empower people and build momentum toward bigger steps.

  Gene Baur

  Moving, Animal, People

  13 Copy quote

• The real danger to the Earth lies in this excessive consumption.

  Yehuda Levi

  Real, Lying, Earth

  4 Copy quote

• The insanity of consumption bothers me. Talk about the opiate of the masses. It ain't religion anymore. It's stuff.

  Emma Thompson

  Insanity, Opiates, Stuff

  10 Copy quote

• The slogan used to be 'Populate or perish'. We can now see that it is more like 'Populate and perish'. A sustainable future has to be based on stabilisation of both population and consumption.

  Ian Lowe

  Population, Environment, Used

  6 Copy quote

• Reducing consumption is imperative, but it's pointless to cut out meat and cars while having lots of children.

  Madeleine Bunting

  Children, Cutting, Car

  "Greens Need to Grasp the Nettle: Aren't There Just Too Many People?". www.theguardian.com. September 10, 2007.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• For me, it's about optimizing health. It's about lifestyle and longevity. Then you think about what vegetarian diets can do for the mass population, in terms of lower consumption of resources. When you look at the numbers, it's pretty staggering.

  Scott Jurek

  Thinking, Vegetarian Diet, Numbers

  15 Copy quote

• We need way more intimacy than nearly anyone considers normal. Always hungry for it, we seek solace and sustenance in the closest available substitutes: television, shopping, pornography, conspicuous consumption - anything to ease the hurt, to feel connected, or to project an image by which we might be seen and known, or at least see and know ourselves.

  Charles Eisenstein

  Hurt, Shopping, Ease

  12 Copy quote

• Being vegan or vegetarian isn't just about compassion for animals. Most of the destruction of the planet is the result of all the clear-cutting, groundwater contamination, grain production, fuel consumption, greenhouse gas, viral proliferation - the direct result of livestock production.

  William McNamara

  Cutting, Compassion, Animal

  "Animal Activist and Star of Copycat William McNamara: On Killing Dolphins and Eating Sushi". Interview with Barbi Twins, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

  9 Copy quote

  Show source

• Raising crops to feed animals for human consumption requires a lot of land. It takes eight or nine cows a year to feed one average meat eater; each cow eats one acre of green plants, soybeans and corn per year; so it takes eight or nine acres of plants a year to feed one meat eater, compared with only half an acre to feed one vegetarian.

  Sharon Gannon

  Animal, Eight, Average

  "Sharon Gannon on Veganism". jivamuktiyoga.com. November 16, 2016.

  27 Copy quote

  Show source

• Take a look at all the third-world countries that are increasing the so called standard of living. One aspect of this rise in standard of living is the increased consumption of animal products, which directly correlates with the rise in heart disease.

  William McNamara

  Country, Heart, Animal

  "Animal Activist and Star of Copycat William McNamara: On Killing Dolphins and Eating Sushi". Interview with Barbi Twins, www.marandapleasantmedia.com.

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• It is a fact that the ecological devastation of the planet can be traced to the consumption of meat and dairy, which contributes to water, soil, and air pollution as well as global warming and the mass extinction of many species of plant and animal forms.

  Sharon Gannon

  Animal, Air, Mass Extinction

  17 Copy quote

• A reduction of meat consumption by only 10% would result in about 12 million more tons of grain for human consumption. This additional grain could feed all of the humans across the world who starve to death each year- about 60 million people!

  Marc Bekoff

  Meat Consumption, Years, People

  Marc Bekoff (2007). “Animals Matter: A Biologist Explains Why We Should Treat Animals with Compassion and Respect”, p.119, Shambhala Publications

  16 Copy quote

  Show source

• You really have to wonder why we even bother to get up in the morning. I mean, really: Why work? Simply to buy more stuff?

  Douglas Coupland

  Morning, Mean, Growth

  Douglas Coupland (2015). “Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture”, p.37, Hachette UK

  5 Copy quote

  Show source

• Current lifestyles and consumption patterns of the affluent middle class…involving high meat intake, consumption of large amounts of frozen and convenience foods, ownership of motor vehicles, golf courses, small electric appliances, home and work place air-conditioning, and suburban housing are not sustainable...

  Maurice Strong

  Eugenics, Air, Class

  "Agenda 21: The U.N.'s Earth Summit Has Its Head In The Clouds" by Larry Bell, www.forbes.com. June 14, 2011.

  31 Copy quote

  Show source

• There are other ways of finding satisfaction, recipes for human happiness, enjoyment, dignified and meaningful, gratifying life, than increased consumption that increases production.

  Zygmunt Bauman

  Meaningful, Recipes, Way

  41 Copy quote

• Too much of what led up to the crisis in the old bubble days—the conspicuous consumption, the latter-day Gatsbyism—was fueled by a need to fill a huge emotional and psychological void left by the absence of meaningful work. When people cease to find meaning in work, when work is boring, alienating, and dehumanizing, the only option becomes the urge to consume—to buy happiness off the shelf, a phenomenon we now know cannot suffice in the long term.

  Richard Florida

  Meaningful, Emotional, Long

  7 Copy quote

• When people move from poor countries to America, they quickly adapt in at least one way - their consumption habits.

  Gary Bauer

  Country, Moving, America

  7 Copy quote

• Any kind of consciousness that is not related to the production or consumption of material goods is stigmatized in our society today.

  Graham Hancock

  Our Society, Society Today, Kind

  70 Copy quote

• It's been a real success - one of the great business successes in the United States - to break down organization, to separate people too: it's part of consumerism. If you can drive people toward individual consumption, that's the highest goal in life. And furthermore, drive them into debt so they're trapped. You don't have to worry about a democracy function because people are trapped and they're alone.

  Noam Chomsky

  Real, Organization, People

  Source: www.truth-out.org

  4 Copy quote

  Show source

• If the world is to save any part of its resources for the future, it must reduce not only consumption but the number of consumers.

  B. F. Skinner

  Numbers, Balance, Population

  B. F. Skinner (1974). “Walden Two”, p.11, Hackett Publishing

  7 Copy quote

  Show source

• Does this planet have enough resources so seven or eight billion can have the same level of consumption and waste that today is seen in rich societies? It is this level of hyper-consumption that is harming our planet.

  Jose Mujica

  Eight, Today, Waste

  "Poverty and the Presidency: Uruguay’s Jose Mujica" by Conrad Black, www.huffingtonpost.com. December 27, 2012.

  13 Copy quote

  Show source

• A sick thought can devour the body's flesh more than fever or consumption.

  Guy de Maupassant

  Sick, Body, Flesh

  95 Copy quote

• Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production; and the interest of the producer ought to be attended to, only so far as it may be necessary for promoting that of the consumer.

  Adam Smith

  Purpose, May, Ends

  'Wealth of Nations' (1776) bk. 4, ch. 8

  27 Copy quote

  Show source