Possession is nine points of the law.

-Anonymous
Proverb, quoted in T Draxe Adages (1616) no.163.

And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give untothee, and tothy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God† Every man child among you shall be circumcised.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Genesis17:7^10.

[The] English proletariat is becoming more and more bourgeois, so that this most bourgeois of all nations is apparently aiming ultimatelyat the possession of a bourgeoisaristocracyand a bourgeoisproletariat as well as a bourgeoisie. For a nation which exploits the whole world this is of course to a certain extent justifiable.

-Engels, Friedrich
  Letter to Karl Marx,7 Oct.

Best thing in eird,I say for me, Is merry hart with small possessioun.

-Henryson, Robert
c.1470  Moral Fables,'The Two Mice', l.387^8.

  Yet I glory More in the cunning purchase of my wealth Than in the glad possession.

-Jonson, Ben
  Volpone, act1, sc.1.

The word, it is to be observed, has two different meanings, and sometimes the utility of some particular object, and sometimes the power of purchasing other goods which the possession of that object conveys. This one may be called 'value in use'; the other,'value in exchange'. The things which have the greatest value in usehave frequently little or novalue in exchange; and on the contrary, those which have the greatest value in exchange have frequently little or no value in use. Nothing is more useful than water: but it will purchase scarce any thing; scarce any thing can be had in exchange for it. A diamond, on the contrary, has scarce any value in use; but a very great quantity of other goods may frequently be had in exchange for it.

-Smith, Adam
VALUE1776  An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of theWealth of Nations, bk.1, ch.4.

Ktema es aei. A possession intended to last for ever.

-Thucydides
Of his History of the PeloponnesianWar,1.22.4.

   Religion issomething which stands beyond, behind, and within the passing flux of immediate things; something which is real, and yet waiting to be realized; something which is a remote possibility, and yet the greatest of present facts; something that gives meaning to all that passes, and yet eludes apprehension; something whose possession is the final good, and yet is beyond all reach; something which is the ultimate ideal, and the hopeless quest.

-Whitehead, Alfred North
  Science and the ModernWorld.

Givea manthesecure possessionof a bleak rock, and he will turn it into a garden; give him a nine years' lease on a garden, and he will convert it into a desert† The magic ofturns sand to gold.

-Young, Arthur
PROPERTY1787  Journal entries, 30 Jul and 7 Nov, published in Travels in France and Italy (1794).