Lapham’s Quarterly

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

Men are merriest when they are from home.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

Every house: temple, empire, school.

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

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.

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

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

Charity begins at home, and justice begins next door.

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