Friedrich Nietzsche

Daybreak

Book IV

281 The ego wants everything.- It seems that the sole purpose of human action is possession: this idea is, at least, contained in the various languages, which regard all past action as having put us in possession of something (‘I have spoken, struggled, conquered’: that is to say, I am now in possession of my speech, struggle, victory). How greedy
man appears here! He does not want to extricate himself even from the past, but wants to continue to have it!