Every man has a lurking wish to appear considerable in his native place.
—Samuel Johnson, 1771At the worst, a house unkept cannot be so distressing as a life unlived.
—Rose Macaulay, 1925God walks among the pots and pans.
—Saint Teresa of Ávila, c. 1582Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful.
—William Morris, 1882An exile with no home anywhere is a corpse without a grave.
—Publilius Syrus, 50 BCThe home is a human institution. All human institutions are open to improvement.
—Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1903For what do we live but to make sport for our neighbors and laugh at them in our turn?
—Jane Austen, 1813The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.
—Maya Angelou, 1986Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.
—Charles Dickens, 1843Hospitality consists in a little fire, a little food, and an immense quiet.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson, 1856Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one’s home.
—Fran Lebowitz, 1981One who is frivolous all day will never establish a household.
—Ptahhotep, c. 2400 BCHatred of domestic work is a natural and admirable result of civilization.
—Rebecca West, 1912Men are merriest when they are from home.
—William Shakespeare, 1599It’s your business when your neighbor’s wall is in flames.
—Horace, 19 BCIn the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness.
—Colette, 1944People 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, 1985A crust of bread and a corner to sleep in / A minute to smile and an hour to weep in.
—Paul Laurence Dunbar, 1895I quit life as from an inn, not as from a home.
—Marcus Tullius Cicero, 44 BCAn American will build a house in which to pass his old age and sell it before the roof is on.
—Alexis de Tocqueville, 1840Home is the girl’s prison and the woman’s workhouse.
—George Bernard Shaw, 1903Many a man who thinks to found a home discovers that he has merely opened a tavern for his friends.
—Norman Douglas, 1917Every house: temple, empire, school.
—Joseph Joubert, 1800