“What belongs to you today, belonged to someone yesterday and will be someone else’s tomorrow.”
Unknown, via Think Like A Monk (Page 185)
“Do not dream of possession of what you do not have: rather reflect on the greatest blessings in what you do have, and on their account remind yourself how much they would have been missed if they were not there. But at the same time you must be careful not to let your pleasure in them habituate you to dependency, to avoid distress if they are sometimes absent.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (Page 62)
“You’re not trying to become non attached. You’re trying to move towards non attachment every time you get scared of a loss. For most people, they’ve never been non attached for one second in their whole life. So even the fact that they can move towards that is helpful for them. So the goal is not to become completely non attached. No. It’s work towards no one person, place, or thing leaving you can completely take away your whole existence and your sense of wholeness.”
Phil Stutz, Stutz
“We may claw and fight and work to own things, but those things can be taken away in a second. The same goes for other things we like to think are ‘ours’ but are equally precarious: our status, our physical health or strength, our relationships. How can these really be ours if something other than us—fate, bad luck, death, and so on—can dispossess us of them without notice? So what do we own? Just our lives—and not for long.”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 360)
“Don’t set your mind on things you don’t possess as if they were yours, but count the blessings you actually possess and think how much you would desire them if they weren’t already yours. But watch yourself, that you don’t value these things to the point of being troubled if you should lose them.”
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, The Daily Stoic (Page 149)
“Remember: even what we get for free has a cost, if only in what we pay to store it—in our garages and in our minds. As you walk past your possessions today, ask yourself: Do I need this? Is it superfluous? What’s this actually worth? What is it costing me?”
Ryan Holiday, The Daily Stoic (Page 75)
“In India it is common wisdom that the world is like a waiting room in a railway station; it is not your house. You are not going to remain in the waiting room forever. Nothing in the waiting room belongs to you—the furniture, the paintings on the wall… You use them—you see the painting, you sit on the chair, you rest on the bed—but nothing belongs to you. You are just here for a few minutes, or for a few hours at the most, then you will be gone.”
Osho, Courage (Page 34)
“Attaining possessions is not the goal. Money itself is not the goal. Our worth is not measured by the weight of our bank accounts but, rather, by the weight of our souls. The path to money, the places money can take us, the time and freedom and opportunity money can bring—these are what we’re really after.” ~ Tony Robbins, Money: Master the Game
“You don’t possess the stars; still you can enjoy them. Or do you first have to possess them, and only then will you be able to enjoy them? You don’t possess the birds in the sky, but you can enjoy them. What you need is not more possessions. What you need is more sensitiveness, more aesthetic sensibility, more musical ears, more artistic eyes. What you need is a vision that transforms everything into something significant and meaningful.” ~ Osho, Fame, Fortune, and Ambition
“It was our belief that the love of possessions is a weakness to be overcome. Its appeal is to the material part, and if allowed its way, it will in time disturb one’s spiritual balance. Therefore, children must early learn the beauty of generosity. They are taught to give what they prize most, that they may taste the happiness of giving.” ~ Ohiyesa, American Indian
“None of those material possessions do anything to make your life any better… I know a lot of people who have a lot of everything, and they’re absolutely the most miserable people in the world. So it won’t do anything for you unless you’re a happy person and can have peace with yourself.” ~ Lenny Kravitz