I always have beauty around me, for I have but to go to my piano, and trace one of the million designs that have been made by my masters. - Rebecca West

When we talked to them we always expressed the love we felt for them and never made the chilling remarks which the part of us undesirous of friendship sometimes tricked us into making to those who might possibly have become our friends.

What would the United States be like if it had not those reservoirs of triumphant will-power, the historical facts of the War of Independence, of the giant American statesmen, and of the pioneering progress into the West, which every American citizen has at his mental command and into which he can plunge for revivification at any minute? To have a difficult history makes, perhaps, a people who are bound to be difficult in any conditions, lacking these means of refreshment.

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)