It’s no secret that in New York during the last 30 years there has been a tragic exodus from the churches into materialism, secularism and humanism.

It is the superfluous things for which men sweat, – superfluous things that wear our togas theadbare, that force us to grow old in camp, that dash us upon foreign shores.

When I was a child, I was very poor and wanted everything. So when I got money, I began buying things.

Material things are delightful, but they’re not important.

It’s very strange to go to cities like London and New York. People walk so quickly, they seem to be in a hurry all the time. And you don’t say ‚Hi‘ to everyone you meet, and you don’t smile to everyone you meet, because there’s just so many. Which is also very strange.

When I’m back in New York – and this is a terrible thing to complain about – I eat a lot more really, really good food than perhaps I’d like to. So many of my friends are really good chefs. It’s kind of like being in the Mafia.

Seemingly, man has learned to live without God, preoccupied and indifferent toward Him and concerned only about material security and pleasure.

Too many of us now tend to worship self indulgence and consumption.

It is an unfortunate human failing that a full pocketbook often groans more loudly than an empty stomach.

I’m an atheist.

Hollywood is a place where they’ll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss and fifty cents for your soul.

Work aside, we come to New York for the possibility of interaction and inspiration.

For me, my secularism is, India first. I say, the philosophy of my party is ‚Justice to all. Appeasement to none.‘ This is our secularism.

Those people in New York are not gonna change me none.

People have a negative impression of New York that I don’t think is quite fair.

We are not the sum of our possessions.

Not necessity, not desire – no, the love of power is the demon of men. Let them have everything – health, food, a place to live, entertainment – they are and remain unhappy and low-spirited: for the demon waits and waits and will be satisfied.

Even in New York, there are a lot of very attractive girls pedaling around. That just happens to be one of the nice sights in our city, seeing a young woman on a bike.

Within one’s own family, money is not the measure of things, unless the person is an absolute Scrooge. Only the most extreme kind of monster would put a price on everything.

Money is human happiness in the abstract; he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes himself utterly to money.

To start with, I love New York… It’s a little bit of the whole world… In New York, the whole world comes to you.

What difference does it make how much you have? What you do not have amounts to much more.

A lot of churches have not moved with the times.

I don’t like Los Angeles. The people are awful and terribly shallow, and everybody wants to be famous but nobody wants to play the game. I’m from New York. I will kill to get what I need.

I love New York. I’m a guy for whom a New York accent is a comforting thing.

Suppose you could gain everything in the whole world, and lost your soul. Was it worth it?

In the past there were people who were not rich but contented with their living style, laughing and happy all day. But when the new rich people appear, people look at them and ask, ‚why don’t I have a life like that too, a beautiful house, car and garden,‘ and they abandon their values.

Fear of death increases in exact proportion to increase in wealth.

One knew in advance that life in New York would not be easy, but there were cheap rents in cold-water lofts without heat, and the excitement of being here made up for those hardships. I didn’t move to New York to make a fortune.

I have more friends in New York than Paris.

I do not read advertisements. I would spend all of my time wanting things.

I want you to feel happy and enjoy the theatre of my life the way that I do. No matter what happens with my music and wherever I go – that heart of that glamorous girl in New York will never be gone.

The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people.

Poverty wants some, luxury many, and avarice all things.

The glamour of it all! New York! America!

I’ve been afraid of people playing their life away with too many toys.

Practically everybody in New York has half a mind to write a book, and does.

We are stripped bare by the curse of plenty.

There’s nothing – I’ve bought everything I want. I don’t like yachts or anything; you know, I’m not a yacht person, and I’ve got pretty much the nicest plane I’d want to have.

We are so conformist; nobody is thinking. We are all sucking up stuff; we have been trained to be consumers, and we are all consuming far too much.

I remember coming to New York in 1974 to do a play here called ‚Equis.‘ And I remember the first morning getting up and walking around the streets, and I thought, ‚I’m home.‘ I felt really at peace here.

Too many people spend money they haven’t earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people they don’t like.

Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.

‚Kitchen Confidential‘ wasn’t a cautionary or an expose. I wrote it as an entertainment for New York tri-state area line cooks and restaurant lifers, basically; I had no expectation that it would move as far west as Philadelphia.

People are really talkative in New York. Someone always comes up to me and says ‚Hi‘ during the day.

We should never let material things get ahead of God or become so important in our lives that we can’t walk away from them if He tells us to. Anything you own that has a hold on you is a problem.

I was born in New York in 1904.

In no instance have… the churches been guardians of the liberties of the people.

I came to New York to be a fine artist – that was my ambition.

I was performing in New York and my friends started to call me Gaga, they said I was very theatrical and they said, ‚You’re Gaga‘.

There is no class so pitiably wretched as that which possesses money and nothing else.

What consumerism really is, at its worst is getting people to buy things that don’t actually improve their lives.

Well, we’re living in a material world, and I’m a material girl… or boy.

The great question of our time is, ‚Will we be motivated by materialistic philosophy or by spiritual power?‘

My show ‚The Big House‘ was picked up; they flew me to New York. I’m about to step on stage to announce Kevin Hart’s ‚The Big House.‘ And a hand grabs my shoulder, ‚Kevin no, they just decided to cancel it.‘ It’s a serious smack-in-the-face business, and either you can take it, or you can’t.

In New York I pretty much live in diners – I order French Fries, Diet Coke floats and lots of coffee.

Those thinkers who cannot believe in any gods often assert that the love of humanity would be in itself sufficient for them; and so, perhaps, it would, if they had it.

It is a kind of spiritual snobbery that makes people think they can be happy without money.

From what I’ve heard, Paris did a little bit more prep work as far as making bike lanes and all of that stuff. They really did it properly, which New York is getting to little by little.

Somehow, we have come to the erroneous belief that we are all but flesh, blood, and bones, and that’s all. So we direct our values to material things.

A lot of the time when I write about the person that I love, I feel like I’m writing about New York.