Luxury

Luxury is a state of wealth and comfort, often through the ownership and enjoyment of things that are expensive and usually unnecessary for survival.

• Coarse are his meals, the fortune of the chase,
  Amidst the running stream he slakes his thirst,
  Toils all the day, and, at th' approach of night
  On the first friendly bank he throws him down,
  Or rests his head upon a rock 'till morn:
  Then rises fresh, pursues his wonted game,
  And if the following day he chance to find
  A new repast, or an untasted spring,
  Blesses his stars, and thinks it luxury.
  • Joseph Addison, Cato, a Tragedy (1713), Act I, scene 4

• The superfluity of the rich is necessary to the poor. If you hold on to superfluous items, then, your are keeping what belongs to someone else.
  • Augustine of Hippo, Exposition of Psalm 147, Exposition of the Psalms, as translated by Maria Boulding (2004), vol. 5, p. 454

• To treat a poor wretch with a bottle of Burgundy, and fill his snuff-box, is like giving a pair of laced ruffles to a man that has never a shirt on his back.
  • Tom Brown, Laconics (1701)

• Sofas 'twas half a sin to sit upon,
  So costly were they; carpets, every stitch
  Of workmanship so rare, they make you wish
  You could glide o'er them like a golden fish.
  • Lord Byron, Don Juan (1818–24), Canto V, Stanza 65

• Blest hour! It was a luxury—to be!
  • Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Reflections on having left a Place of Retirement (1796), line 43

• O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, The Deserted Village (1770), line 385

• Such dainties to them, their health it might hurt:
  It's like sending them ruffles, when wanting a shirt.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, Haunch of Venison (1776)

• Then there is that glorious Epicurean paradox, uttered by my friend, the Historian in one of his flashing moments: "Give us the luxuries of life, and we will dispense with its necessaries."
  • Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table (1858), VI

• Fell luxury! more perilous to youth
  Than storms or quicksands, poverty or chains.
  • Hannah More, "Belshazzar", Sacred Dramas (1787)

• Luxury and dissipation, soft and gentle as their approaches are, and silently as they throw their silken chains about the heart, enslave it more than the most active and turbulent vices.
  • Hannah More, "On Dissipation", Essays (1786)

• The long anticipated luxury, once enjoyed, becomes a necessity that must needs be gratified.
  • John Mullan (referring to the telegraph), Miners and Traveler's Guide (1865)

• On his weary couch
  Fat Luxury, sick of the night's debauch,
  Lay groaning, fretful at the obtrusive beam
  That through his lattice peeped derisively.
  • Robert Pollok, Course of Time (1827), Book VII, line 69

• Luxury is an enticing pleasure, a bastard mirth, which hath honey in her mouth, gall in her heart, and a sting in her tail.
  • Francis Quarles, "Hugo", Emblemes (1709), Book I

• Where could I find enough leather to cover the whole earth? But by the leather of one pair of sandals the earth will be covered.
  • Santideva, Bodhicaryavatara ('The Entrance into the Life of Enlightenment'), V, 13, as quoted in The Heart of Buddhist Meditation (1969), p. 202

• Rings put upon his fingers,
  A most delicious banquet by his bed,
  And brave attendants near him when he wakes,
  Would not the beggar then forget himself?
  • William Shakespeare, The Taming of the Shrew (c. 1593-94), Induction, scene 1, line 38

• Falsely luxurious, will not man awake?
  • James Thomson, Summer (1727), line 67; The Seasons (1730)

• There is a luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves we feel that no one else has the right to blame us.
  • Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891), Chapter 8

• Comfort
• Extravagance

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Luxury

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• Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (1922), pp. 484-85