I got a lot of things that society had promised would make me whole and fulfilled - all the things that the culture tells you from preschool on will quiet the throbbing anxiety inside you - stature, the respect of colleagues, maybe even a kind of low-grade fame.

Many a family, in order to make a 'proper showing,' will commit itself for a larger and more expensive house than is needed, in an expensive neighborhood. Almost everyone would, it seems, like to keep up with the Joneses.

Buying something ultimately comes down to feeling good about the purchase.

Some people wanted champagne and caviar when they should have had beer and hot dogs.

Enjoy everything that happens in your life, but never make your happiness or success dependent on an attachment to any person, place, or thing.

Success surely comes with conscience in the long run, other things being equal. Capacity and fidelity are commercially profitable qualities.

But if God love me, Celie, I don't have to do all that. Unless I want to. There's a lot of other things I can do that I speck God likes. Like what? I ast. Oh, she say. I can lay back and just admire stuff. Be happy. Have a good time.

And I try to teach my heart not to want nothing it can't have.

Now. Is this life or not? I be so calm. If she come, I be happy. If she don't, I be content. And then I figure this the lesson I was suppose to learn.

There's a lot of other things I can do that I speck God likes. Like what? I ast. Oh, she say. I can lay back and just admire stuff. Be happy. Have a good time.

If she come, I be happy. If she don't, I be content.

When you think of the possessions you now own or the ones you hope to own—or when you're envying others for what they have—remember that the scriptures also warn that where your treasure is, there your heart is also.