Our houses are such unwieldy property that we are often imprisoned rather than housed by them. – Henry David Thoreau

It is preoccupation with possession, more than anything else, that prevents men from living freely and nobly. – Bertrand Russell, Principles of Social Reconstruction, 1917

Some men are born to own, and can animate all their possessions. Others cannot: their owning is not graceful; seems to be a compromise of their character: they seem to steal their own dividends. – Ralph Waldo Emerson