What a gamble it is to have children! - Rebecca West

After any disturbance (such as two world wars coinciding with a period of growing economic and monetary incomprehensibility) we find our old concepts inadequate and look for new ones. But it unfortunately happens that the troubled times which produce an appetite for new ideas are the least propitious for clear thinking.

There is one common condition for the lot of women in Western civilization and all other civilizations that we know about for certain, and that is, woman as a sex is disliked and persecuted, while as an individual she is liked, loved, and even, with reasonable luck, sometimes worshipped.

It's important that we clearly defined what we need from our home so we don't get distracted by what someone else might want if it were their home.

(Happy Starts at Home: Getting the Life You Want by Changing the Space You've Got, Rebecca West)