“Tis not possessions that bring happiness.”

“Material possessions in themselves are good. We would not survive for long without money, clothing, shelter and food. Yet if we refuse to share what we have with the hungry and the poor, we make of our possessions a false god. How many voices in our materialist society tell us that happiness is to be found by acquiring as many possessions and luxuries as we can! But this is to make possessions into a false god. Instead of bringing life, they bring death.”

Pope Benedict XVI (1927) 265th Pope of the Catholic Church

“Happiness resides not in possessions, and not in gold, happiness dwells in the soul.”

Democritus Ancient Greek philosopher, pupil of Leucippus, founder of the atomic theory

“Of all thy blessings reckon wealth the least,
For 'tis the least secure of our possessions.”

Alexis (-372–-270 BC) Athenian poet of Middle Comedy

“It is the pursuit of happiness that brings us happiness, and not the happiness achieved.”

Jack White (1975) American musician and record producer

“As a well-spent day brings happy sleep, so life well used brings happy death.”

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian Renaissance polymath

“Happiness is found in doing, not merely possessing.”

Napoleon Hill book Think and Grow Rich

“Action may not always bring happiness but there is no happiness without action.”

Benjamin Disraeli (1804–1881) British Conservative politician, writer, aristocrat and Prime Minister

“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”

William James (1842–1910) American philosopher, psychologist, and pragmatist

“Happiness is the perpetual possession of being well deceived.”

Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Anglo-Irish satirist, essayist, and poet