Lapham’s Quarterly

God walks among the pots and pans.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

Men are merriest when they are from home.

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

Every house: temple, empire, school.

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

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

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

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