Virtuous men alone possess friends. [ Voltaire ]
Let the weary at length possess quiet rest. [ Seneca ]
What we do not understand, we do not possess. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
Life passes through us; we do not possess it. [ Amiel ]
Those that much covet are with gain so fond,
That what they have not, that which they possess,
They scatter and unloose it from their bond.
And so, by hoping more, they have but less. [ William Shakespeare ]
But slaves that once conceive the glowing thought
Of freedom, in that hope itself possess
All that the contest calls for; spirit, strength,
The scorn of danger, and united hearts,
The surest presage of the good they seek. [ Cowper ]
We can only possess wealth according to our capacity. [ John Ruskin ]
There can be no true aristocracy but must possess the land. [ Carlyle ]
It is a worthier thing to deserve honour than to possess it. [ Proverb ]
Riches for the most part are hurtful to them that possess them. [ Plutarch ]
To be happy is not to possess much, but to hope and to love much. [ Lamennais ]
Our minds possess by nature an insatiable desire to know the truth. [ Cicero ]
The age does not believe in great men, because it does not possess any. [ Beaconsfield ]
To possess a good cognomen is a long way on the road of success in life. [ Chamfort ]
Most men are like plants: they possess properties which chance discovers. [ De Saint-Real ]
The wit which we strive to possess spoils that which we naturally possess. [ Gresset ]
Less coin, less care; to know how to dispense with wealth is to possess it. [ Reynard ]
Fewer possess virtue than those who wish us to believe that they possess it. [ Cicero ]
What I possess I would gladly retain; change amuses the mind, yet scarcely profits. [ Goethe ]
There are no women to whom virtue comes easier than those who possess no attractions.
It is ordained in the counsel of God that we must all part from the dearest we possess. [ Feuchtersleben ]
It is not enough merely to possess virtue, as if it were an art; it should be practised. [ Cicero ]
To praise princes for virtues which they do not possess, is to insult them with impunity. [ La Roche ]
Two sorts of writers possess genius; those who think, and those who cause others to think. [ J. Roux ]
We attract hearts by the qualities we display; we retain them by the qualities we possess. [ Suard ]
The most delightful letter does not possess a hundredth part of the charm of a conversation. [ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ]
All wish to possess knowledge, but few, comparatively speaking, are willing to pay the price. [ Juvenal ]
That caressing and exquisite grace - never bold, ever present - which just a few women possess. [ Owen Meredith ]
If the true did not possess an objective value, human curiosity would have died out centuries ago. [ Renan ]
Nothing under heaven so strongly does allure the sense of man, and all his mind possess, as beauty's love bait. [ Spenser ]
We wish others to possess, or to acquire, all the qualities and virtues that can serve our pleasures or interests. [ De Finod ]
It is no great advantage to possess a quick wit, if it is not correct; the perfection is not speed, but uniformity. [ Vauvenargues ]
Nothing is rarer than real goodness; those even who think they possess it are generally only good-natured and weak. [ La Roche ]
It is strange that all great men should have some little grain of madness mingled with whatever genius they possess. [ Moliere ]
To write well is to think well, to feel well, and to render well; it is to possess at once intellect, soul, and taste. [ Buffon ]
We write from aspiration and antagonism, as well as from experience. We paint those qualities which we do not possess. [ Emerson ]
If we did but know how little some enjoy the great things that they possess, there would not be much envy in the world. [ Young ]
How, without clothes, could we possess the master organ, soul's seat and true pineal gland of the body social - I mean a purse? [ Carlyle ]
I am persuaded that he who is capable of being a bitter enemy can never possess the necessary virtues that constitute a true friend. [ Fitzosborne ]
The lust of avarice has so totally seized upon mankind that their wealth seems rather to possess them than they possess their wealth. [ Pliny ]
We part more easily with what we possess, than with our expectations of what we wish for; because expectation always goes beyond enjoyment. [ Henry Home ]
To succeed in the world, it is much more necessary to possess the penetration to discover who is a fool than to discover who is a clever man. [ Cato ]
In destroying the predisposition to anger, science of all kinds is useful; but the mathematics possess the property in the most eminent degree. [ Dr. Rush ]
There is in all of us an obstacle to perfect happiness, which is weariness of the things we possess, and the desire for the things we have not. [ Mme. de Rieux ]
Perfection does not exist. To understand it is the triumph of human intelligence; to desire to possess it is the most dangerous kind of madness. [ Alfred de Musset ]
I hope I shall always possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain, what I consider the most enviable of all titles, the character of an honest man.
[ George Washington ]
How happy he who can still hope to lift himself from this sea of error! What we know not, that we are anxious to possess, and cannot use what we know. [ Goethe ]
If money be not thy servant, it will be thy master. The covetous man cannot so properly be said to possess wealth, as that it may be said to possess him. [ Bacon ]
Men of humor are always in some degree men of genius; wits are rarely so, although a man of genius may, amongst other gifts, possess wit, as Shakespeare. [ Coleridge ]
Love breaks in with lightning flash: friendship comes like dawning moonlight. Love will obtain and possess; friendship makes sacrifices but asks nothing. [ Geibel ]
We never read without profit if with the pen or pencil in our hand we mark such ideas as strike us by their novelty, or correct those we already possess. [ Zimmermann ]
There is in all of us an impediment to perfect happiness; namely, weariness of the things which we possess, and a desire for the things which we have not. [ Mme. de Rieux ]
Men of humour are always in some degree men of genius; wits are rarely so, although a man of genius may, amongst other gifts, possess wit, as Shakespeare. [ Coleridge ]
One man pursues power in order to possess wealth, and another pursues wealth in order to possess power; which last is the safer way, and generally followed. [ South ]
He that loves reading has everything within his reach. He has but to desire, and he may possess himself of every species of wisdom to judge and power to perform. [ William Godwin ]
It is generally admitted, and very frequently proved, that virtue and genius, and all the natural good qualities which men possess, are derived from their mothers. [ T. Hook ]
It is an odd thing, but every one who disappears is said to be seen in San Francisco. It must be a delightful city and possess all the attractions of the next world. [ Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Grey ]
Firmness, both in sufferance and exertion, is a character I would wish to possess. I have always despised the whining yelp of complaint and the cowardly feeble resolve. [ Burns ]
Short is the life of those who possess great accomplishments, and seldom do they reach a good old age. Whatever thou lovest, pray that thou mayest not set too high a value on it. [ Martial ]
If the ear is the road to the heart, and the heart to the affections, how keen must the affliction of deafness be to those who possess great tenderness of the one, and susceptibility of the other. [ J. Ellis ]
Good-nature is worth more than knowledge, more than money, more than honor, to the persons who possess it, and certainly to everybody who dwells with them, in so far as mere happiness is concerned. [ Henry Ward Beecher ]
A thorough miser must possess considerable strength of character to bear the self-denial imposed by his penuriousness. Equal sacrifices, endured voluntarily in a better cause, would make a saint or a martyr. [ W. B. Clulow ]
Rhyme is the elementary art of the poet; but at the same time he must possess that vehement passion for melody that buoys his speech into song, his footsteps into tune, and makes his life move in a melodious rhythm. [ Bentivoglio ]
Art does not imitate nature, but it founds itself on the study of nature, - takes from nature the selections which best accord with its own intention, and then bestows on them that which nature does not possess, viz. the mind and the soul of man. [ Bulwer-Lytton ]
If thy friends be of better quality than thyself, thou mayest be sure of two things: the first, that they will be more careful to keep thy counsel, because they have more to lose than thou hast; the second, they will esteem thee for thyself, and not for that which thou dost possess. [ Sir W. Raleigh ]
Own or Confess? The verb to own means to possess, but it has borrowed the additional and objectionable meaning of to confess, to acknowledge; as, He owned his crime.
A man owns a house, but confesses a larceny, or a murder, neither of which offenses is hardly susceptible of ownership. [ Pure English, Hackett And Girvin, 1884 ]
Talk to the point, and stop when you have reached it. The faculty some possess of making one idea cover a quire of paper is not good for much. Be comprehensive in all you say or write. To fill a volume upon nothing is a credit to nobody; though Lord Chesterfield wrote a very clever poem upon nothing. [ John Neal ]
There are circumstances of peculiar difficulty and danger, where a mediocrity of talent is the most fatal quantum that a man can possibly possess. Had Charles the First and Louis the Sixteenth been more wise or more weak, more firm or more yielding, in either case they had both of them saved their heads. [ Colton ]
Pride differs in many things from vanity, and by gradations that never blend, although they may be somewhat indistinguishable. Pride may perhaps be termed a too high opinion of ourselves founded on the overrating of certain qualities that we do actually possess; whereas vanity is more easily satisfied, and can extract a feeling of self-complacency from qualifications that are imaginary. [ Colton ]
A pair of bright eyes with a dozen glances suffice to subdue a man; to enslave him, and inflame; to make him even forget; they dazzle him so that the past becomes straightway dim to him; and he so prizes them that he would give all his life to possess them. What is the fond love of dearest friends compared to his treasure? Is memory as strong as expectancy, fruition as hunger, gratitude as desire? [ Thackeray ]
Weakness can never be beautiful, either morally or physically: and though the feminine type may possess greater softness and more feeling, it must be active, firm, and healthy, or it cannot be beautiful; the weak mind, distracted by alternations of feeling, and constant craving for help and sympathy from others, cannot at the same time possess that tenderness and unselfish devotion which is the loveliest trait of the female character. [ M. Martell ]