quote about going home

February 23, 2013 5:39 PM

I am looking for a quote along the lines of, "you leave home to search for what you are looking for, only to come home and realize it was there all along". I remember reading a specific quote around this idea, but I can't remember the wording well enough to look it up. I would also be interested in any quote along these lines and expressing a similar idea. thanks.
posted by bearette to media & arts (15 answers total)

It's reminding me of the lyrics to Back In Your Own Backyard.
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:47 PM on February 23

"...if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own back yard. Because if it isn't there, I never really lost it to begin with! Is that right?"
-- Dorothy Gale in "The Wizard of Oz"

"We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time."
-- T.S. Eliot, "Little Gidding"
posted by ottereroticist at 5:48 PM on February 23 [5 favorites]

these are great- seems this is a relatively common theme; perhaps i was thinking of more than one quote. I am still interested in more along these lines- especially poetry.
posted by bearette at 5:53 PM on February 23

"The important thing about having lots of things to remember is that you’ve got to go somewhere afterwards where you can remember them, you see? You’ve got to stop. You haven’t really been anywhere until you’ve got back home."
-- from "The Light Fantastic" by Terry Pratchett
posted by MonkeyToes at 6:00 PM on February 23 [4 favorites]

And the end of all our exploring. Will be to arrive where we started. And know the
place for the first time. T.S. Eliot -- "Little Gidding" (the last of his Four Quartets ) ...
posted by jamjam at 6:10 PM on February 23 [1 favorite]

Sorry, ottereroticist, in my haste I only read the first part of your answer.
posted by jamjam at 6:13 PM on February 23

It's very similar to the old TV trope that 'it was inside you all along': http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ItWasWithYouAllAlong
posted by skywhite at 6:21 PM on February 23

I feel like Ithaka by Cavafy intersects this idea sort of obliquely.
posted by sigmagalator at 6:43 PM on February 23 [1 favorite]

It also resembles the trope of the girl/boy next door: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GirlNextDoor
posted by skywhite at 6:44 PM on February 23

This is also the theme of short teaching story called Treasure Under the Bridge from Rabbi Nachman that dates from circa 1800. The upshot is that the man has dream telling him to leave home to find treasure. When he gets to his destination, he can't find the treasure but is told by another man that dreams are foolish since this second man's dream was that the treasure was in the first man's home. He goes home and finds it in his own house. Note that while the treasure had been there all along, he had to leave and come back to find it.
posted by metahawk at 8:29 PM on February 23

The story referenced by metahawk is also told very effectively in a children's book called The Treasure, by Uri Shulevitz. That's what I first flashed to upon reading your question.

The illustrations are especially marvelous -- almost Isaac Bashevis Singer by way of Maurice Sendak.
posted by sesquipedalia at 9:27 PM on February 23

"Wherever we're going, we're going together, and wherever we're going, we're already there." – Daniel Silberberg
posted by 168 at 10:09 PM on February 23

There are echoes of this in Love After Love by Derek Walcott, but I thought first of Little Gidding too.
posted by oliverburkeman at 12:38 AM on February 24

This is also the theme of The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.
posted by Too-Ticky at 2:26 AM on February 24 [1 favorite]

"A man travels the world in search of what he needs and returns home to find it." -George Edward Moore
posted by PickeringPete at 10:45 AM on February 24