Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place.

—Samuel Johnson, 1771

At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.

—Rose Macaulay, 1925

God walks among the pots and pans.

—Saint Teresa of Ávila, c. 1582

Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.

—William Morris, 1882

An exile with no home anywhere is a corpse without a grave.

—Publilius Syrus, 50 BC

The home is a human institution. All human institutions are open to improvement.

—Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1903

For what do we live but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?

—Jane Austen, 1813

The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.

—Maya Angelou, 1986

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

—Charles Dickens, 1843

Hospitality consists in a little fire, a little food, and an immense quiet.

—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1856

Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one’s home.

—Fran Lebowitz, 1981

One who is frivolous all day will never establish a household.

—Ptahhotep, c. 2400 BC

Hatred of domestic work is a natural and admirable result of civilization.

—Rebecca West, 1912

Men are merriest when they are from home.

—William Shakespeare, 1599

It’s your business when your neighbor’s wall is in flames.

—Horace, 19 BC

In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.

—Colette, 1944

People can say what they like about the eternal verities, love and truth and so on, but nothing’s as eternal as the dishes.

—Margaret Mahy, 1985

A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in / A minute to smile and an hour to weep in.

—Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1895

I quit life as from an inn, not as from a home.

—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 44 BC

An American will build a house in which to pass his old age and sell it before the roof is on.

—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840

Home is the girl’s prison and the woman’s workhouse.

—George Bernard Shaw, 1903

Many a man who thinks to found a home discovers that he has merely opened a tavern for his friends.

—Norman Douglas, 1917

Every house: temple, empire, school.

—Joseph Joubert, 1800