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

“… happiness is not found in things you possess, but in what you have the courage to release…”

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American novelist and short story writer (1804 – 1879)

“For you who no longer possess it, freedom is everything, for us who do, it is merely an illusion.”

Emil M. Cioran book History and Utopia

“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

“Let us ask the Gods not for possessions, but for things to do; happiness is in making things rather than consuming them.”

Will Durant (1885–1981) American historian, philosopher and writer

“Tis not possessions that bring happiness.”

Matteo Maria Boiardo (1441–1494) Italian writer

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

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

“To crave for happiness in this world is simply to be possessed by a spirit of revolt. What right have we to happiness?”

Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian playwright, theatre director, and poet

“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

“The possession of great powers, no doubt, carries with it a contempt for mere external show.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)