Most things worth having require some sacrifice, usually more than you expect.

Albert Ellis, Michael Abrams, Lidia Dengelegi, The Art & Science of Rational Eating, 1992

We too often let the material things serve as indicators¹ that we're doing well, even though something inside us tells us that were not doing our best. That we are avoiding that which is hard, but also necessary. That we are shrinking from rather than vising to the challenges of the age.

Barack Obama (1961 - ), Arizona State Commencement Speech, 2009

The wise man carries his possessions within him.

Bias²

I love stuff as much as the next guy, but I’ve come to understand that, regardless of the cost of acquiring it, the price of having it is freedom.

Colleen Wainwright, Communicatrix, 06-23-09

Possession is eleven points in the law.

Colley Cibber (1671 - 1757), Woman's Wit, Act 1

I take care of my things. After all, those of us as has few things to begin with must take care, lest we have fewer.

Erica Eisdorfer, The Wet Nurse's Tale, 2009

Before we set our hearts too much upon anything, let us examine how happy those are who already possess it.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613 - 1680)

Every increased possession loads us with new weariness.

John Ruskin (1819 - 1900)

To have little is to possess.

To have plenty is to be perplexed³.

Lao-tzu (604 BC - 531 BC), The Way of Lao-tzu

Desire makes everything blossom; possession makes everything wither⁴ and fade.

Marcel Proust (1871 - 1922), Les Plaisirs et les Jours (1896)

An object in possession seldom retains the same charm that it had in pursuit.

Pliny the Younger (62 AD - 114 AD), Letters

I have everything, yet have nothing; and although I possess nothing, still of nothing am I in want.

Terence (185 BC - 159 BC), Eunuchus

It is through creating, not possessing, that life is revealed.

Vida D. Scudder