I wanted to contribute to humanity. I ended up with an air conditioner instead.

Of all of the inventions that I would say are merely useless pursuits of materialism, air conditioners aren't one.

Oscar Wilde said, "Everything in moderation, including moderation." This is a very elequent way of expressing that you shouldn't focus too much on living a "moderate" lifestyle.

Rejecting air conditioning is a fundamentalist viewpoint. It's no better or worse than a Wall Street trader who has billions of dollars but no meaningful relationships. If the pursuit of your chosen ideology blots out the meaningful relationships in your life, then what's the point of the ideology?