Lapham’s Quarterly

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

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

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

Every house: temple, empire, school.

Men are merriest when they are from home.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

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

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

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

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

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

God walks among the pots and pans.