attachment to belongings Quotes

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

The crazy thing is I got all of these shoes, and probably 80 percent of them I've never worn before. I've worn all the glasses. I sleep in them, bend them up a little bit. Glasses are on all the time except when I'm at practice or at work.

If we were to gain God's perspective, even for a moment, and were to look at the way we go through life accumulating and hoarding and displaying our things, we would have the same feelings of horror and pity that any sane person has when he views people in an asylum endlessly beating their heads against the wall.

Once a book falls into our possession, it is ours, the same way children lay their claim: 'That's my book.' As if it were organically part of them. That must be why we have so much trouble returning borrowed books. It's not exactly theft (of course not, we're not thieves, what are you implying?); it's simply a slippage in ownership or, better still, a transfer of substance. That which belonged to someone else becomes mine when I look at it. And if I like what I read, naturally I'll have difficulty giving it back.

Paines to get, care to keep, feare to lose.

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

Between what a man calls me and what he simply calls mine the line is difficult to draw. We feel and act about certain things that are ours very much as we feel and act about ourselves.

Eventually, a collection ceases to be a personal indulgence and assumes its own identity. In fact, it becomes a thing in its own right - rather like Frankenstein's monster.

He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.

Possession hinders enjoyment. It merely gives you the right to keep things for or from others, and thus you gain more enemies than friends.

Possessions are usually diminished by possession.

Possessions and concessions are not often what they seem, they drag you down and load you down in disguise of security.

Nothing seems interesting when it belongs to you, only when it doesn't.

Ownership is the most intimate relationship that one can have to objects. Not that they come alive in him; it is he who lives in them.

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

You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you.

This is my life, I think. I am an accumulation of objects.

If you don't feel comfortable owning something for 10 years, then don't own it for 10 minutes.

I try not to be sentimental and obsessive about possessions. I love collecting, but I hate owning.