Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.
O. HenryRead
But the best, in my opinion, was the home life in the little flat--the ardent, voluble chats after the day's study; the cozy dinners and fresh, light breakfasts; the interchange of ambitions--ambitions interwoven each with the other's or else inconsiderable--the mutual help and inspiration; and--overlook my artlessness--stuffed olives and cheese sandwiches at 11 p.m.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the warmth and richness of shared home life, focusing on mutual support and joy in companionship.
O. Henry reflects on the simple yet profound pleasures of home life, where meaningful conversations, shared aspirations, and small nightly indulgences create a tapestry of connection between individuals. The quote illustrates how these intimate moments contribute to a strong bond, highlighting the value of companionship and the nurturing environment that encourages growth and inspiration.
In practice
Sharing this quote during a gathering to celebrate friendships and meaningful connections.
Bohemia is nothing more than the little country in which you do not live. If you try to obtain citizenship in it, at once the court and retinue pack the royal archives and treasure and move away beyond the hills.
It's said that love makes the world go around. Let me tell you, the announcement lacks verification. It's the wind from the dinner horn that does it.
Yes, I get dry spells. Sometimes I can't turn out a thing for three months. When one of those spells comes on I quit trying to work and go out and see something of life. You can't write a story that's got any life in it by sitting at a writing table and thinking. You've got to get out into the streets, into the crowds, talk with people, and feel the rush and throb of real life-that's the stimulant for a story writer.
You can't appreciate home till you've left it, money till it's spent, your wife till she's joined a woman's club, nor Old Glory till you see it hanging on a broomstick on the shanty of a consul in a foreign town.
She had become so thoroughly annealed into his life that she was like the air he breathed--necessary but scarcely noticed.
He seemed to be made of sunshine and blood-red tissue and clear weather.
A friend is long sought, hardly found, and with difficulty kept.
Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile, his friends are everything.
We are wont to see friendship solely as a phenomenon of intimacy in which the friends open their hearts to each other unmolested by the world and its demands...Thus it is hard for us to understand the political relevance of friendship...But for the Greeks the essence of friendship consisted in discourse...The converse (in contrast to the intimate talk in which individuals speak about themselves), permeated though it may be by pleasure in the friend’s presence, is concerned with the common world.
There is a fellowship more quiet even than solitude, and which, rightly understood, is solitude made perfect.
It is somethingit can be everything-to have found a fellow bird with whom you can sit among the rafters while the drinking and boasting and reciting and fighting go on below.
Too few rejoice at a friend's good fortune.
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