Quotes About Possessions

When you know you are doing the will of God, that alone is enough to sustain your happiness. When you don't have that, all the possessions in the world cannot sustain happiness in the depths of your heart.

A lot of our modern lifestyle is based on having things. Jesus rejected the idea that things should have a primary place in our lives. Other than the clothes on his back and the sandals on his feet, he had nothing. And his teachings constantly affirmed that people were primary and things were secondary.

First we conceive the "I" and grasp onto it. Then we conceive the "mine" and cling to the material world. Like water trapped on the water wheel, we spin in circles, powerless. I praise the compassion that embraces all beings. – Chandrakirti

In [Richard] Baxter's view, concern for outward possessions should sit lightly on the shoulders of his saints 'like a thin cloak which can be thrown off at any time.' But fate decreed that the cloak should become a shell as hard as steel.

Some people lusted after cars, which had never made sense to me. For me, bookshelves could inspire whole spontaneous sonnets, so maybe it was an each to her own scenario.

Great master Lao Tzu says that 'The Master has no possessions. The more he does for others, the happier he is. The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is.' Giving is indeed a very good source of happiness! One of the best treasures a man can give to someone is a good and sound idea; because birds can ascend into the sky only with wings, and men, only with good and sound ideas!

The more we have the less we own.

Furthermore, we should keep all things only as if they had been merely lent and not given to us, without any sense of possessiveness, whether it be our body or soul, our senses, faculties, worldly goods or honour, friends, relations, house or home or anything whatsoever.

They who can go without all things, not needing them, are far more blessed than they who possess them in their need. That person is the best who can do without what they do not need.

I owned a Ferrari, a Range Rover, a Mercedes 560SL convertible, a Jeep Cherokee and a Nissan 300ZX. I can't remember the intricate decision tree I had to climb in order to determine which one to drive to work on any given day - it probably had something to do with the weather, or which car had more gas in the tank, or upholstery that best matched whatever shirt I happened to throw on that morning.

Every form of strength is also a form of weakness," he once wrote. "Pretty girls tend to become insufferable because, being pretty, their faults are too much tolerated. Possessions entrap men, and wealth paralyzes them. I learned to write because I am one of those people who somehow cannot manage the common communications of smiles and gestures, but must use words to get across things that other people would never need to say.

Greed had always seemed to me the most self-defeating of vices because one cannot own anything permanently; we have, at most, a life tenancy in our possessions. But I suppose the fulfillment was in the acquisition and maybe, too, someone who'd been tossed around by life needed the cosseting that money and things provide.

This economic arrangement worked only because their lives were so oriented toward the group that they didn't even consider their possessions their own but "had everything in common" (Acts 4: 32 ESV). While this probably didn't mean a one-time divestment of every single piece of individual property into a common fund, it absolutely meant people sold land and houses to share with the group.

Es ist mir egal, wie viel jemand auf der Bank hat - solange er kein Kind hat, besitzt er nichts von Wert.

We are more willing to invest in defending what is already ours than we are to take what is someone else's, because the motivation to avoid losing what we already have is greater than the motivation of gaining what we don't yet have.

It wasn't easy to cram your whole life into thirty kilos of luggage.

There's a chasm between envy and desire. Envy is like wanting something that's not yours. But desire is different. Desire comes out of wanting what is yours, and still wanting it even if it's not yet there, but it's not envy.

Money is much more exciting than anything it buys.

We are seldom happy with what we now have, but would go to pieces if we lost any part of it.

A little in one's own pocket is better than much in another man's purse.

No os quepais en el cerebro lo que os puede caber en el bolsillo. Y al contrario, ¡no os quepais en el bolsillo lo que os puede caber en el cerebro!

Real freedom is having nothing. I was freer when I didn't have a cent.

What a man wore or owned had nothing to do with his heart and character.

I gave you things I wasn't sure I even had.