To me the ego is the habitual and compulsive thought processes that go through everybody's mind continuously. External things like possessions or memories or failures or successes or achievements. Your personal history.

That so unlikely an outcome should accrue to a man possessed of such limited talent and so many flaws, and one lacking in a sense of ethics and decency was one of the bitter ironies of history.

A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic, a mere working mason; if he possesses some knowledge of these, he may venture to call himself an architect.

All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions.

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy.

To be perfectly happy it does not suffice to possess happiness, it is necessary to have deserved it.

Work faithfully, and you will put yourself in possession of a glorious and enlarging happiness.

Happiness is not a possession to be prized, it is a quality of thought, a state of mind.

Happiness, true happiness, is an inner quality. It is a state of mind. If your mind is at peace, you are happy. If your mind is at peace, but you have nothing else, you can be happy. If you have everything the world can give - pleasure, possessions, power - but lack peace of mind, you can never be happy.

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

We possess only the happiness we are able to understand.

So long as we can lose any happiness, we possess some.

In times of joy, all of us wished we possessed a tail we could wag.

With people of limited ability modesty is merely honesty. But with those who possess great talent it is hypocrisy.

Waiting is the great vocation of the dispossessed.

The idea of winning a doctor's degree gradually assumed the aspect of a great moral struggle, and the moral fight possessed immense attraction for me.

The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider... the riders contend for its possession.

I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess.

Material possessions, winning scores, and great reputations are meaningless in the eyes of the Lord, because He knows what we really are and that is all that matters.

Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.

The world is more competitive and social media drives this. It's woman against woman when it comes to appearance, possessions and friendship circles.

I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being.

Before the State of Israel became a reality, Sinatra was a strong supporter, knowing that Jews were being denied access to the Holy Land. Sinatra met and had a friendship with Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion. Ben-Gurion gave Sinatra a beautiful Old Testament bible that was a proud possession that my father kept all his life.

They took their meals together; and it was remarked on such occasions, when the friendship of animals is put to a hard test, that they never quarrelled or disputed the possession of a favourite fruit with each other.