Possessions

Sigrid Undset:

All things that a man owns hold him far more than he holds them.

Agnes Repplier:

The pleasure of possession, whether we possess trinkets, or offspring – or possibly books, or prints, or chessmen, or postage stamps – lies in showing these things to friends who are experiencing no immediate urge to look at them.

Helen Hayes:

Through the years I have found it wonderful to acquire, but it is also wonderful to divest. It’s rather like exhaling.

Audre Lorde:

We are all more blind to what we have than to what we have not.

Doris Mortman:

Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have.

Lucy Larcom:

I do not own an inch of land, / But all I see is mine, – / The orchard and the mowing-fields, / The lawns and gardens fine. / The winds my tax-collectors are, / They bring me tithes divine.

Hilda Lawrence:

The things people discard tell more about them than the things they keep.

Nancy Willard:

Lost things, she felt certain, had a life of their own. They come back to their families like stray dogs.

Susan Hale:

As for things, how they do accumulate, how often I wish to exclaim, “Oh don’t give me that!”

Ann Landers:

The best things in life aren’t things.