We face the question whether a still higher “standard of living” is worth its cost in things natural, wild, and free. – Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac, 1949

Human prosperity never rests but always craves more, till blown up with pride it totters and falls. From the opulent mansions pointed at by all passers-by none warns it away, none cries, “Let no more riches enter!” – Aeschylus

Armaments, universal debt and planned obsolescence — those are the three pillars of Western prosperity. – Aldous Huxley, Island

So long as all the increased wealth which modern progress brings goes but to build up great fortunes, to increase luxury and make sharper the contrast between the House of Have and the House of Want, progress is not real and cannot be permanent. – Henry George, Progress and Poverty, 1879