Saif

“We may distinguish both true and false needs. “False” are those which are superimposed upon the individual by particular social interests in his repression: the needs which perpetuate toil, aggressiveness, misery, and injustice. Their satisfaction might be most gratifying to the individual, but this happiness is not a condition which has to be maintained and protected if it serves to arrest the development of the ability (his own and others) to recognize the disease of the whole and grasp the chances of curing the disease. The result then is euphoria in unhappiness. Most of the prevailing needs to relax, to have fun, to behave and consume in accordance with the advertisements, to love and hate what others love and hate, belong to this category of false needs.”
― Herbert Marcuse, One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society

“It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours.”
― Diogenes of Sinope

“It is better for you to be free of fear lying upon a pallet, than to have a golden couch and a rich table and be full of trouble.”
― Epicurus

“If the gods listened to the prayers of men, all humankind would quickly perish since they constantly pray for many evils to befall one another.”
― Epicurus