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Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House QUOTES

Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House QUOTES

1 " Home is the one place in the world where you are safe from feeling put down or out, unentitled, or unwanted. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

2 " Housekeeping comprises the ability to find, evaluate, and use information about nutrition, cooking, chemistry and biology, health, comfort, laundry, cleaning, and safety. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

3 " Being perceived as excessively domestic can get you socially ostracized. When I made hand-rolled pasta for a dinner, I learned the hard way that some guests will find this annoying, as they do not feel comfortable eating a meal that they regard as the product of too much trouble. When my son was in nursery school, I made the mistake of spending a few hours sewing for him a Halloween astronaut costume of metallic cloth, earning the disgust, suspicion, and hard stares of many a fellow parent who had bought a Batman or Esmeralda costume. When "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

4 " What really does work to increase the feeling of having a home and its comforts is housekeeping. Housekeeping creates cleanliness, order, regularity, beauty, the conditions for health and safety, and a good place to do and feel all the things you wish and need to do and feel in your home. Whether "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

5 " Housework can look like a Sisyphean task that gives you no sense of reward or completion . "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

6 " Hair burns very quickly. If you have long hair, tie it back securely when you are cooking, building a fire in the fireplace, lighting your space heater, leaning toward a lit grill, or doing anything else involving flames. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

7 " Then her affection was in the soft sofa cushions, clean linens, and good meals; her memory in well-stocked storeroom cabinets and the pantry; her intelligence in the order and healthfulness of her home; her good humor in its light and air. She lived her life not only through her own body but through the house as an extension of her body; part of her relation to those she loved was embodied in the physical medium of the home she made. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

8 " Her real secret was that she identified herself with her home. Of course, this did not always turn out well. A controlling woman might make her home suffocating. A perfectionist’s home might be chilly and forbidding. But it is more illuminating to think about what happened when things went right. Then her affection was in the soft sofa cushions, clean linens, and good meals; her memory in well-stocked storeroom cabinets and the pantry; her intelligence in the order and healthfulness of her home; her good humor in its light and air. She lived her life not only through her own body but through the house as an extension of her body; part of her relation to those she loved was embodied in the physical medium of the home she made. My "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

9 " Besides, I reflected darkly, you shouldn’t have to be a lawyer to figure out how to do the laundry. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

10 " When you finally achieve a modus vivendi with your kitchen, you have been acculturated. You have learned a way of life. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

11 " The part of me that enjoys housekeeping and the comforts it provides is central to my character. Until now, I have almost entirely concealed this passion for domesticity. No one meeting me for the first time would suspect that I squander my time knitting or my mental reserves remembering household facts such as the date when the carpets and mattresses were last rotated. Without thinking much about it, I knew I would not want this information about me to get around. After all, I belong to the first generation of women who worked more than they stayed home. We knew that no judge would credit the legal briefs of a housewife, no university would give tenure to one, no corporation would promote one, and no one who mattered would talk to one at a party. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

12 " Aperitifs, digestifs, and cocktails are remarkably fashion-sensitive and have the same ups and downs in popularity as hemlines. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

13 " I managed to persevere partly because not everyone responded with that stare; there was enthusiasm as well. And I was struck that no one responded with bored indifference. The topic was clearly hot—too hot for some people to handle, heartwarming to others. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

14 " Home life is important and housekeeping should be an enjoyable part of it . "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

15 " modus vivendi "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

16 " that the way you experience life in your home is determined by how you do your housekeeping. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

17 " Brew black tea for three to five minutes; oolong for about five minutes; and green teas for only a minute or two. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House

18 " To taste its best, wine, especially red wine, must be uncorked and exposed to the air for a period of time before it is drunk. "

― , Home Comforts: The Art and Science of Keeping House