Nicolas Berggruen Quotes

Anything you cannot relinquish when it has outlived its usefulness possesses you, and in this materialistic age a great many of us are possessed by our possessions.

We think we own things, but the reality is, our things own us.

In our rich consumers' civilization we spin cocoons around ourselves and get possessed by our possessions.

I understand the human instinct to want to create a nest and possess things, to show them off, but for me personally, it became less and less interesting.

It is preoccupation with possessions, more than anything else, that prevents us from living freely and nobly.

People like their handbag more than their sofa, and I hate it.

Earthly goods are given to be used, not to be collected.... Hoarding is idolatry.

Possessions are usually diminished by possession.

Private property has made us so stupid and partial that an object is only ours when we have it, when it exists for us as capital ... Thus all the physical and intellectual senses have been replaced by ... the sense of having.

Anything you think you "must have" usually comes to own you.

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

The more you own, the more it owns you.

People like to own things.

Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner.

A house is just a place to keep your stuff while you go out and get more stuff.

Whatever we treasure for ourselves separates us from others; our possessions are our limitations.

The things you used to own, now they own you.

As human beings, we're very materialistic and have all this stuff - furs and cars and diamonds and money.

Though we take from a covetous man all his treasure, he has yet one jewel left; you cannot bereave him of his covetousness.

Strangely enough, they have a mind to till the soil, and the love of possessions is a disease in them.

I own things I like, but nothing inanimate that I treasure in a deeply consuming way.

My husband calls me 'throwy-outy' - he's horrified at how easily I dispense with things. People I won't let go of, but things, mementos from shows, I'm not particularly attached to.

I don't fetishize objects.

A lot of people are obsessed with their possessions, but that's not right. It's OK to own a lot of things as long as you're willing to share them.