I understand, of course, that many people find smoking objectionable. That is their right. I would, I assure you, be the very last to criticize the annoyed. I myself find many-- even most-- things objectionable. Being offended is the natural consequence of leaving one's home. I do not like aftershave lotion, adults who roller-skate, children who speak French, or anyone who is unduly tan. I do not, however, go around enacting legislation and putting up signs. In private I avoid such people; in public they have the run of the place. I stay at home as much as possible, and so should they. When it is necessary, however, to go out of the house, they must be prepared, as I am, to deal with the unpleasant personal habits of others. That is what "public" means.

She didn’t ask why I left, because that’s a silly question. I left for the same reason all people leave home. Because one day you realize that all the old habits have become too familiar. Because there is a world of discovery waiting and the first step toward the future is a step away from the past. So you leave. Go chasing rainbows, never thinking that maybe one end of a rainbow is just as good as another.

By making the choice to leave, you're insulting the place that raised you, and made you, and never turned you away. And that place fights you back.

It is always sad when someone leaves home, unless they are simply going around the corner and will return in a few minutes with ice-cream sandwiches.

One must leave home if he is to find home

Everything offended Jessica, which is inevitable when you move through the world in search of offense.

You were my home
for so long.
Now I realize that humans
cannot
be homes.
If homes can leave,
then they are not
homes.

A departure can feel like a desertion, a judgement on the place and people left behind.

I still think that being forced to leave your home out of fear is one of the worst injustices a human being can face.

I dislike feeling at home when I am abroad.

But while I was in their city, it just seemed like such a mistake that I had ever left home, such an error in judgment in all our parts.

Most of the young people who leave home do so not because home is unbearable, but because they are seeking a greener pasture, often with the naïve conviction that "no matter how, it will be better out there". They are deaf to any advice that they see as blocking their destiny. What is necessary is to work hard to make our nation a better place for us, and for anyone who may wish to come and live with us.

I remember the many people who suddenly invaded the house, making me feel stranger in my own home...With his (father’s) going, the order and stability that had been in my life dissolved. There was no breadwinner. So we had to leave the place that had been our home.

"And when you call on some high official, imagine that you will not find him at home, that you will be shut out, that the door will be slammed in your face, and that he will ignore you. But if, in spite of all this, you really have to go, accept it and go without ever telling yourself, "it was not worth all that". That's what an ordinary person would do, someone upset by mere circumstances."