“As far as one journeys, as much as a man sees, from the turrets of the TajMahal to the Siberian wilds, he may eventually come to an unfortunateconclusion —usually while he's lying in bed, staring at the thatched ceiling ofsome substandard accommodation in Indochina," writes Swithin in his lastbook, the posthumously published Whereabouts, 1917 (1918). "It is impossibleto rid himself of the relentless, cloying fever commonly known as Home.After seventy-three years of anguish I have found a cure, however. You mustgo home again, grit your teeth and however arduous the exercise, determine,without embellishment, your exact coordinates at Home, your longitudesand latitudes. Only then, will you stop looking back and see the spectacularview in front of you.”

“How far we all come. How far we all come away from ourselves. So far, so much between, you can never go home again. You can go home, it's good to go home, but you never really get all the way home again in your life. And what's it all for? All I tried to be, all I ever wanted and went away for, what's it all for?Just one way, you do get back home. You have a boy or a girl of your own and now and then you remember, and you know how they feel, and it's almost the same as if you were your own self again, as young as you could remember.And God knows he was lucky, so many ways, and God knows he was thankful. Everything was good and better than he could have hoped for, better than he ever deserved; only, whatever it was and however good it was, it wasn't what you once had been, and had lost, and could never have again, and once in a while, once in a long time, you remembered, and knew how far you were away, and it hit you hard enough, that little while it lasted, to break your heart.”

“How can you approve of them? Does it not bother you that your son, your only son, the very last male to carry the Garrett name, goes home from work every night to another man? That doesn’t offend your sensibilities?” “Not one bit,” Harrison said. He picked up his newspaper again. “At least he looks forward to going home.”

“No matter where you go, or however long you're there, you can always come back home to me. Whether tears or smiles cloud your eyes, you can rest upon your knees. Whether you have found yourself, or lost your sense of purpose along the way, I'll be there to take you in. I won't give you away.”

“Good day to you, Sister," Gannon grunted, gritting his teeth and clenching the reins in a white-knuckled grip. "May you live to see your great-grandchildren, and may your eyes never grow dim!" Rolin stifled a snicker. His spinster aunt was childless, and her eyesight was poor from years of needlework.”

“[God] wants you to go home, look at your bucket of seed, and determine in your heart how much you'd like to sow. He wants you to consider thoughtfully your current circumstances, your life, your potential, and your finances. He wants you to involve your family. He wants you to pray about it. And then He wants you to come up with a plan.”