quotations about possessions
He that sets not his heart on what he possesses, forsaketh all things, though he keep his possessions.
FRANCIS QUARLES
Enchiridion Institutions
A man that simply loads himself down with possessions of which he has no actual need, when he dies slips out of them--as a little insect might slip out of some parasite shell into which it has ensconced itself--into the grave, and is forgotten.
E. H. CHAPIN
Living Words
The sense of possession is a great obstacle to the realization of God. Attachment to any external object narrows our vision, fosters egotism and gives rise to the false notion that we are separate from God.
PAPA RAMDAS
attributed, Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom
People who have few possessions cling tightly to those they have. That is one of the facts that make life so discouraging.
SHERWOOD ANDERSON
"The Egg", The Triumph of the Egg
The desire of great possessions generally expands with the gradual acquisition and the full attainment of them.
LINDLEY MURRAY
Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Lindley Murray
O fool! it is not with ease that one can get without exertion the possessions of those who exert themselves.
PINDARUS
attributed, Day's Collacon
I have less stuff than most people, and yet, I still feel I have too much and it drives me crazy. I do not understand how people feel like they need to hang on to so many possessions. I'm surprised they haven't succumbed to "stuffocation" -- being suffocated by stuff. I definitely admire the minimalists.
STEPHANIE HAINES
"More isn't always better", Greenfield Reporter, May 4, 2016
When I behold what pleasure is Pursuit,
What life, what glorious eagerness it is,
Then mark how full Possession falls from this,
How fairer seems the blossom than the fruit
THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH
"Pursuit and Possession"
Possession means to sit astride the world
Instead of having it astride of you.
CHARLES KINGSLEY
Saint's Tragedy
We cannot hope to understand consumer behavior without first gaining some understanding of the meanings that consumers attach to possessions. A key to understanding what possessions mean is recognizing that, knowingly or unknowingly, intentionally or unintentionally, we regard our possessions as parts of ourselves.
RUSSELL W. BELK
"Possessions and the Extended Self", Journal of Consumer Research, September 1, 1988
We do not attach ourselves permanently to any possessions, excepting in proportion to the trouble, toil and longing which they have cost us.
HONORÉ DE BALZAC
Physiology of Marriage
It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly.
BERTRAND RUSSELL
Principles of Social Reconstruction
When you don't have possessions, you don't constantly live to acquire and protect them.
MARLO MORGAN
attributed, Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom
That honors and possessions are also bestowed by the devil, is known; because for that reason he is called the prince of the world. Now as it is unknown when honors and possessions are blessings, and when they are curses.
EMANUEL SWEDENBORG
Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence
Property has its duties as well as its rights.
THOMAS DRUMMOND
letter to the Earl of Donoughmore, May 22, 1838
Remember that only that to which you have developed the attitude of ownership can be snatched away from you.
ORMOND MCGILL
attributed, Treasury of Spiritual Wisdom
To have so little, and it of so little value, was to be quaintly free.
WALLACE STEGNER
All the Little Live Things
No possessions are good, but by the good use we make of them.
SIR WILLIAM TEMPLE
Miscellanea
To possess possessions, a man will "sell himself" to have what another has, but it never dawns on him that the more he gets, the less he keeps of himself.
RIUS
Marx for Beginners
If a man's happiness is due to outer causes and external possessions, then a man devoid of possessions should have no happiness whatever. Does real experience show this? No.
RAMANA MAHARSHI
Conscious Immortality