As prosperity is promoted, thinking is demoted. – Martin H. Fischer (1879–1962)

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

Luxury: The lust for comfort, that stealthy thing that enters the house as a guest, and then becomes a host, and then a master. – Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet, 1923

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