houses Quotes

“Dogs have important jobs, like barking when the doorbell rings, but cats have no function in a house whatsoever.”

″[Jurgis] could not hear it often enough; he could not ask with enough variations. Yes, they had bought the house, they had really bought it. It belonged to them, they had only to pay the money and it would be all right. Then Jurgis covered his face with his hands, for there were tears in his eyes, and he felt like a fool. But he had had such a horrible fright; strong man as he was, it left him almost too weak to stand up.”

″ ... there was his house, small but detached. It had been the one thing his mum had insisted on in the divorce […] after his dad had left for America with Stephanie, the new wife. That had been six years ago, so long now that Conor sometimes couldn’t remember what it was like having a dad in the house.”

“Even though it walked and talked, even though it was bigger than his house and could swallow him in one bite, the monster was still, at the end of the day, just a yew tree. Conor could even see more berries growing from the branches at its elbows.”

“There was a single blue line of crayon drawn across every wall in the house. What does it mean? I asked. A pirate needs the sight of the sea, he said and then he pulled his eye patch down and turned and sailed away.”

“I buried a nickel under the porch when I was 8, she said, but one day my grandma died & they sold the house & I never got to go back for it. A nickel used to mean something, I said.She nodded. It still does, she said & then she started to cry.”

“‘Loving someone is like moving into a house,’ Sonja used to say. ‘At first you fall in love with all the new things, amazed every morning that all this belongs to you, as if fearing that someone would suddenly come rushing in through the door to explain that a terrible mistake had been made, you weren’t actually supposed to live in a wonderful place like this. Then over the years the walls become weathered, the wood splinters here and there, and you start to love that house not so much because of all its perfection, but rather for its imperfections. You get to know all the nooks and crannies. How to avoid getting the key caught in the lock when it’s cold outside. Which of the floorboards flex slightly when one steps on them or exactly how to open the wardrobe doors without them creaking. These are the little secrets that make it your home.’”

“He’d discovered that he liked houses. Maybe mostly because they were understandable... Houses were fair, they gave you what you deserved. Which, unfortunately, was more than one could say about people.”

“He needs to be sent to Jackson . . . How can anybody live in a house like this.”

“When asked what he recalls of his first six years, Michael said, ‘Going for days having to drink water to get full. Going to other people’s houses and asking for something to eat. Sleeping outside. The mosquitoes.‘”

“In 1995, Steve Wallace of the San Francisco 49ers became the first offensive lineman to sign a contract worth $10 million. The quarterback might still get all the glory. But the guy who watched his back would be moving into a bigger house.”

“I see the spectacle of morning from the hill-top over against my house, from day-break to sun-rise, with emotions which an angel might share.”

“But houses exactly like the houses of our past yet dominated the landscape, boys exactly like the boys we once had been found themselves smothering in these houses, came down into the streets for light and air and found themselves encircled by disaster.”

“About the only part of a California house you can’t put your foot through is the front door.”

“No; it was a big, ugly, antique, but convenient house, embodying a few features of a building still older, half replaced and half utilized, in which I had the fancy of our being almost as lost as a handful of passengers in a great drifting ship. Well, I was, strangely, at the helm!”

“You have to churn somewhat when the roof covering your head is at stake, since to sell is to walk away from a cluster of memories and to buy is to choose where the future will take place.”

“The houses that are important to us are the ones that allow us to dream in peace.”

“When my grandparents moved to the United States, their first priority was to save enough money to buy this house . . . To them a house meant much more than shelter; it was a stake in their new country.”

“The house was left; the house was deserted. It was left like a shell on a sandhill to fill with dry salt grains now that life had left it.”

″‘Essentially,’ he went on slowly, ‘the evil is the house itself, I think. It has enchained and destroyed its people and their lives, it is a place of contained ill will. […].‘”

“It’s harder to burn down a house than you think,” Luke said.

″‘I thought it would be fun to build ourselves a house to picnic in when the winter comes,’ said Peregrine. The Ordinary Princess clapped her hands with joy. ‘You do have the nicest ideas of anyone I know,’ she said. ‘Now where shall we build it?‘”

“He had wandered through the streets for hours, neither knowing nor caring where he was going. All he knew was that he couldn’t return to the empty rooms of the house, couldn’t look at the things they had touched and held and known with him.”

″... Pa and Ma and Mary and Laura and baby Carrie left their little house in the Big Woods of Wisconsin. They drove away and left it lonely and empty in the clearing among the big trees, and they never saw that little house again.”

“So they all went away from the little log house. The shutters were over the windows, so the little house could not see them go. It stayed there inside the log fence, behind the two big oak trees that in the summertime had made green roofs for Mary and Laura to play under. And that was the last of the little house.”

“I would rather have a man chasing Jesus than a house full of stuff.”

“When Uncle Stan rose in the morning, he somehow managed to wake the entire household. No one complained, as he was the breadwinner in the family, and in any case he was cheaper and more reliable than an alarm clock.”

“Build a house for men and birds. Sit with them and play music. For a day, for just one day, talk about that which disturbs no one and bring some peace, my friend, into your beautiful eyes.”

“I realized as I walked through the neighborhood how each house could contain a completely different reality. In a single block, there could be fifty separate worlds. Nobody ever really knew what was going on just next door.”

“And in that house there is a bed, a cozy bed in a napping house, where everyone is sleeping.”

“And on that bed there is a granny, a snoring granny on a cozy bed in a napping house, where everyone is sleeping.”

“A wakeful flea who bites the mouse, who scares the cat, who claws the dog, who thumps the child, who bumps the granny, who breaks the bed, in the napping house, where no one now is sleeping.”

“There is a house, a napping house, where everyone is sleeping.”

“In an old house in Paris that was covered with vines lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.”

‘In a house far away, right at the end of a long dusty road deep in the bush at the back of Palm Beach, lived three sisters with their mother, their father, and sometimes their Uncle Paul. The three sisters were called Elizabeth, Frances and Matilda.’

“So far as the little girl could see, there was only the one little house where she lived with her father and mother, her sister Mary and baby Carrie.”

″ ‘If you become a little boy and run into a house,’ said the mother bunny, ‘I will become your mother and catch you in my arms and hug you.’ ”

“Now your snow is all white! Now your work is all done! Now your house is all right!”

I’ve learned that this tale is conceived with help from the kids of the Gaiman and McKean. Maddy Gaiman has a nightmare of wolves scratching the walls of their house. Gaiman helped Maddy cope with this fear by storytelling, making strategies to escape from the wolves or something like that—and these plotting became a part of the story.

“I don’t care if you believe it. Thats the kind of house I live in. And I hope we never leave it.”

“How had the People ever left the surface? Sometimes she wished that her ancestors had stayed to fight it out with the Mud People. But there were too many of them. Unlike fairies who could produce only a single child every twenty years, Mud People bred like rodents. Numbers would subdue even magic. Although she was enjoying the night air, Holly could taste traces of pollutants. The Mud People destroyed everything they came into contact with. Of course they didn’t live in the mud anymore. Not in this country, at least. Oh no. Big fancy dwellings with rooms for everything—rooms for sleeping, rooms for eating, even a room to go to the toilet! Indoors! Holly shuddered. Imagine going to the toilet inside your own house. Disgusting!”

Lucy knew that trouble was about to begin and tries to warn her family of the danger of staying in the house, even though her family do not believe her at first.

But when the confused and curious boy discovers that a mysterious virus is spreading through town, he decides to enter an otherworldly house to stop it.

The child is caught in the web of the judicial system as his foster care and sanctuary are determined. While the story has all the elements of a gripping tale, it often reads like a first, rough draft. A prelude to the book, titled “Ethiopia,” finds soldiers barging into the Kelos’ house.

“Her own future was close-folded still; but she leaned her head against the sun-warmed door, and closing her eyes, whispered, just as if she had been a child saying her prayers: ‘God bless aunt Miranda; God bless the brick house that was; God bless the brick house that is to be!‘”

″‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;”

“I looked at the long dirt road that crawled across the plains, remembering the morning that Mama had died, cruel and sunny. They had come for her in a wagon and taken her away to be buried. And then the cousins and aunts and uncles had come and tried to fill up the house. But they couldn’t.”

Mom is always gribbling about pants on the floor and shoes on the sofa. She says, “This house doesn’t clean itself, you know. “Who do you think does everything around here? “Mr. Nobody? “I don’t get paid to pick up your smelly socks! If I did, I’d be a rich woman.” etc. etc. non stop.

“Frog and Toad waited a long time. Four days later the snail got to Toad’s house and gave him the letter from Frog. Toad was very pleased to have it. ”

“Maisy plays in the Wendy house”

“In a house the colour of the sun and the shape of a lightning bolt, a baby woke up in his cot. Not just any baby. He was a superbaby- son of superheroes, Captain Lightning and Madam Thunderbolt.”

“Now the Jolly Postman, Nearly done (so is the story), Came to a house where a party had begun. On the step Was a Bear with a bun.”

“With that, Miyax became Julie. She was given a cot near the door in Martha’s little house and was soon walking to school in the darkness. She liked to learn the printed English words in books, and so a month passed rather happily.”

“Her house was not well built for she had never made one before, but it was cozy inside. She had windproofed it by sealing the sod bricks with mud from the pond at her door, and she had made it beautiful by spreading the caribou ground cloths on the floor. ”

“I told Ma once the Howards had a room just for company, a room just for books, and a room just for plants, and she said that was three rooms too many. First time I ever saw any envy in my ma.”

“In his small house at the other side of the wood, Mr. Tickle was asleep. You didn’t know that there was such a thing as a Tickle, did you? Well, there is!”

“Sitting in his armchair in his small house at the other side of the wood, he laughed and laughed every time he thought about all the people he had tickled. So, if you are in any way ticklish, beware of Mr Tickle and those extraordinary long arms of his. Just think. Perhaps, he’s somewhere about at this very moment while you’re reading this book.”

“She forgot that she had a cat flap. She wanted to go back into the house, but she couldn’t remember how. In the end she sat outside the kitchen window and meowed until someone let her in.”

“She meowed her biggest meow, very sudden and very, very loud. The man was surprised He dropped his bag. It made a big noise and everyone in the house woke up.”

“She was very sad. The garden was dark. The house was dark too. Mog sat in the dark and thought dark thoughts. She thought, ‘Nobody likes me. They’ve all gone to bed. There’s no one to let me in. And they haven’t even given me my supper’. “

“The house was before them, overgrown with honeysuckle, dark-windowed, looking abandoned. Off to the right, Dicey saw the lopsided barn. It had once been red, but the paint had weathered, faded and peeled, until it looked pink as a bad sunburn. The tin roof was rusted in large patches.”

“You’ve let this room and this house replace you and your wife in your children’s affections. This room is their mother and father, far more important in their lives than their real parents.”

“One evening Mother Pig called the children to her as they were playing all over the house. ‘Now piglets,’ she said, ‘your father and I are going out this evening.’ There was a chorus of groans. ‘Not far,’ said Mrs Pig, ‘and I’ve asked a very nice lady to come and look after you.’ “

“Morris was too young to play with chemicals, said Betty, he might blow up the house. He was too little to play hockey, said Victor, he might get hurt.”

“Every summer Stina visited her grandfather in his house by the sea. And every summer she went treasure hunting. Smooth sticks, sea stars, feathers, there was so much to be found.”

The Parker children’s home becomes a battlefield because they want a pet while their mother declares that she will have no gerbils in her house.

“My grandma came and was disgusted with the state of the house. I showed her my room which is always neat and tidy and she gave me fifty pence. I showed her all the empty drink bottles in the dustbin and she was disgusted.”

“Mr. Grumpy owned a boat and his house was by a river. ”

“They bit and scratched and clawed each other and made such a noise that the very old man and the very old woman ran into the house as fast as they could.”

“Mr. Bird was happy. He was so happy he had to sing. This was Mr. Bird’s song: ‘I love my house. I love my nest. In all the world my nest is best!’ ”

“This is the dog that worried the cat, that chased the rat, that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built”

“Mr. Bird went in. And there was Mrs. Bird! Sitting there, singing! ‘I love my house, I love my nest. In all the world this nest is best.’ ”

″ ‘Rabbit,’ cried the king, ‘why did you break a law of nature and go running, running, running, in the daytime?’ ‘Oh, King,’ said the rabbit, ‘it was the python’s fault. I was in my house minding my own business when that big snake came in and chased me out.’ ”

“This is the house that Jack built. This is the malt that lay in the house that Jack built”

“The mer-king had been a widower for many years; his mother kept house for him. She was a very intelligent woman but a little too proud of her rank: she wore twelve oysters on her tail; the nobility were only allowed six.”

“Mr. Bird was very happy too. He flew to the top of his house. He sang is song again.”

“This is the cat that chased the rat that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built”

“This the maiden all forlorn, that milked the cow with the crumpled horn, that tossed the dog, that worried the cat, that chased the rat, that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built”

“We all live in Busytown and we are all workers. We work hard so that there will be enough food and houses and clothing for our families.”

“Grocer Cat bought a new dress for Mommy. She earned it by taking such good care of the house. He also bought a present for his son, Huckle. Huckle was a very good helper today.”

“A truck brought furniture, a television set, a radio, rugs, pictures, a stove and lots of other things. The house was ready for the new family. At last the new family has arrived! Look! It is Stitches, the tailor! Stitches paid the workmen for building the house.”

“the girl...swept away the snow behind the little house with the broom, and what did she find but real ripe strawberries, which came up quite dark-red out of the snow! In her joy she hastily gathered her basket full, thanked the little men, shook hands with each of them, and ran home to take her step-mother what she had longed for so much.”

“Before three notes of the pipe came fluttering you heard a sound like armies muttering, and the muttering grew to a grumbling, and the grumbling grew to a mighty rumbling, and out of the houses the rats came tumbling.”

″...when they approached the little house they saw that it was built of bread and covered with cakes, but that the windows were of clear sugar.”

“The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality, a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there.”

″‘We can’t have a house? A little back yard to run around in for a change?’ ‘Oh, sure,’ Al snapped. ‘Today it’s a house you want. Tomorrow, who knows? Maybe the moon!‘”

“Time indeed did seem to stand still in and all about the old house, as if it and the people who inhabited it had got so old that they could not get any older, and had outlived the possibility of change.”

“Books should be found in every house To form and feed the mind; They are the best of luxuries ‘Tis possible to find. For all the books in all the world Are man’s greatest treasure; They make him wish, and bring to him His best, his choicest pleasure.”

“Little Tommy Tittlemouse, Lived in a little house; He caught fishes In other men’s ditches.”

“When a golden girl can win Prayer from out the lips of sin, When the barren almond bears, And a little child gives away its tears, Then shall all the house be still And peace comes to Canterville.”

“It was an ordinary house, he thought, an ugly house, nothing to boast of. But the idea that it was his, the idea of family history pleased him.”

“Both Dag and Nora felt that houses were like living beings. They had souls. Houses and people couldn’t just be matched up and live together any old way, They didn’t always get along well. There could be things just weren’t right.”

“The Bible tells us to build our houses on foundations of stone...on Krakatoa we have found it necessary to use an even stronger foundation. Our houses are built on a substructure of solid diamond boulders.”

″...before I even got indoors, I heard a waily-waily noise coming from the house, and my godmother-aunt said ‘that is your new sister.’ ”

“Oh, dear! Oh, dear!′ wailed Katie Morag, looking at the five soggy parcels. ‘All the addresses are smudged and I won’t know which parcel is for which house now!’ Only Grannie’s parcel was still recognizable for its red label.”

“No one can say that I am not a devoted sister...but the prospect of a visit from Edmund always fills me with alarm. My house is turned upside down, my children behave like wild things, there is nothing but noise and confusion.”

“They pulled and they pulled and up came Ping and the Boy on to the house boat.”

“I want you to let Caddie run wild with the boys. Don’t keep her in the house learning to be a lady. I would rather see her learn to plow than make samplers, if she can get her health by doing so. I believe it is worth trying. Bring the other girls up as you like, but let me have Caddie.”

“Everything was home in a way except school. The United States of America was home and he could feel it when they sang The Star Spangled Banner. And the ranch was home. The house was home. But most particularly the bed was home.”

″‘I am the Muskrat,’ said the wretched creature faintly. ‘A philosopher, you know. I should just like to point out that your bridge-building activities have completely ruined my house in the river bank, and although it ultimately doesn’t matter what happens, I must say even a philosopher does not care for being soaked to the skin.‘”

“in a way they didn’t cost anything at all. After the last present had been opened and the last candle on the tree blown out, they played charades and hide-and-seek all over the house. It was all great fun; but everybody suddenly thought about the time. This was the end, and Christmas Day was over for another year, which was a miserable feeling.”

“He didn’t remember this street, and what is more, he hadn’t known there were any old houses in new little Radcliff-on-the-sea. ‘But then,’ he told himself sensibly, ‘I don’t know everything!‘”

“Susan found it difficult not to believe that most things were alive. She thought the windows of houses were eyes, and she was particularly fond of cottages in Scatterbrook because they nearly all had thatched eyebrows.”

“I’m king of a cow! And I’m king of a mule! I’m king of a house! And a bush! And a cat! But that isn’t all. I’ll do better than that! My throne shall be higher!”

“Once upon a time there was a frog called Mr. Jeremy Fisher; he lived in a little damp house amongst the buttercups at the edge of a pond. The water was all slippery-sloppy in the larder and in the back passage. But Mr. Jeremy liked getting his feet wet; nobody ever scolded him, and he never caught a cold!”

“The house has changed hands and no longer belongs to the original family, and Dick isn’t too keen on the new owners. ”

“We figured if the house was gone, and the paperwork and data inside it gone, and all the objects they fought about gone, the power would be gone.”

“Welcome to my house! Enter freely and of your own will!”

A house cannot be made habitable in a day; and, after all, how few days go to make up a century.

And take it altogether, now that we have been into most of the houses hereabouts and can judge, there is not one that we like better than this.