Do not neglect to show hospitality to
strangers, for thereby some
have entertained angels unaware.

Paul

    

Hospitality:  a little fire, a little food, and an immense quiet.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

      

Hospitality is always an act that benefits the host even more than the guest.  The concept of hospitality arose in ancient times when the reciprocity was easier to see:  in nomadic cultures, the food and shelter one gave to a stranger yesterday is the food and shelter one hopes to receive from a stranger tomorrow.  By offering hospitality, one participates in the endless reweaving of a social fabric on which all can depend--thus the gift of sustenance for the guest becomes a gift of hope for the host.

Parker J. Palmer
The Courage to Teach

  

When friends are at your hearthside met,
Sweet courtesy has done its most
If you have made each guest forget
That he himself is not the host.

Thomas Bailey Aldrich

   
Hospitality means we take people into the space that is our lives and our minds and our hearts and our work and our efforts.  Hospitality is the way we come out of ourselves.  It is the first step towards dismantling the barriers of the world.  Hospitality is the way we turn a prejudiced world around, one heart at a time.

Joan Chittister
   

In hospitality, the chief thing is the good will.

Greek proverb

   

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Hospitality is making your guests feel at home,
even though you wish they were.

Proverb

   
Let not the emphasis of hospitality lie in bed and board; but let
truth and love and honor and courtesy flow in all thy deeds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
   

There is an emanation from the heart in genuine hospitality which
cannot be described, but is immediately felt and puts the
stranger at once at his or her ease.

Washington Irving

   

Like many other virtues, hospitality is practiced in its
perfection by the poor.  If the rich did their share,
how would the woes of this world be lightened!

C.M. Kirkland

    

It is an excellent circumstance that hospitality grows best
where it is most needed.  In the thick of people it dwindles
and disappears, life fruit in the thick of a wood; but where
people are planted sparely it blossoms and matures, like
apples on a standard or an espalier.  It flourishes
where the inn and lodging-house cannot exist.

Hugh Miller

  

Mighty proud I am that I am able to have a spare bed for my friends.

Samuel Pepys

    

There is no beautifier of complexion, or form, or behavior, like the
wish to scatter joy and not pain around us.  'Tis good to give a
stranger a meal, or a night's lodging.  'Tis better to be hospitable to
one's good meaning and thought, and give courage to a companion.
We must be as courteous to a person as we are to a picture, which
we are willing to give the advantage of a good light.


Ralph Waldo Emerson

   

   

Hospitality should have no other nature than love.

Henrietta Mears

  

Hospitality means primarily the creation of free space where the stranger
can enter and become a friend instead of an enemy.  Hospitality is not to
change people, but to offer them space where change can take place.
It is not to bring men and women over to our side,
but to offer freedom not disturbed by dividing lines.

Henri J.M. Nouwen
Reaching Out

  

True hospitality is marked by an open response to the dignity of each
and every person.  Henri Nouwen has described it as receiving the
stranger on his or her own terms, and asserts that it can be offered only by
those who "have found the center of their lives in their own hearts."

Kathleen Norris
Dakota: A Spiritual Geography

   

Hospitality is the practice of God's welcome by reaching
across difference to participate in God's actions
bringing justice and healing to our world in crisis.

Letty M. Russell

  

Hospitality invites to prayer before it checks credentials,
welcomes to the table before administering the entrance exam.

Patrick Henry

  

We have some inspiring and motivational books that may interest you.  Our main way of supporting this site is through the sale of books, either physical copies or digital copies for your Amazon Kindle (including the online reader).  All of the money that we earn through them comes back to the site in one way or another.  Just click on the picture to the left to visit our page of books, both fiction and non-fiction!

   
There is no hospitality like understanding.

Vanna Bonta
   

If it were not for guests all houses would be graves.

Khalil Gibran

   

Hospitality has never been about having House Beautiful with perfectly
coordinated accessories and the most up-to-date equipment, nor is it
dependent upon having large chunks of leisure time and a big entertainment
budget to spend, nor does it require special training in the culinary arts
or event planning.  Hospitality is about a heart for service, the creativity
to stretch whatever we do have available, and the energy to give the time
necessary to add a flourish to the ordinary events of life.

Dorothy Kelley Patterson

   

   
There is a huge difference between "entertaining" and offering hospitality.
Entertaining puts the emphasis on you and how you can impress others.
Offering hospitality puts the emphasis on others and strives to meet their
physical and spiritual needs so that they feel refreshed,
not impressed, when they leave your home.

Karen Ehman
   

Being “hospitable” does not mean you need to have an open door policy
to anyone who wants to drop in at any time they want to or need to drop
in.  That being said, being hospitable does mean being available for
emergencies and having some flexibility.  Some folks are just plain needy
and will take up all of your time if you let them; others would never drop
by unannounced unless it was urgent.  Use some wisdom to know when
to bend, and when to stand firm and graciously say, “I’m sorry,
I cannot give time to that today.”

Keri Mae
A Happy Home Media

  

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When Walker first steps onto the road, he has no thoughts, no history, no memories, and no clothes. As he travels and meets people and learns from them, he comes to know more about life, living, and becoming the person he's meant to be. Walker is a parable for all of us who wonder what might be the purpose of life, why bad things happen with almost as much regularity as good things, and how we can learn from the bad examples and experiences in our lives as much as we can learn from the good things. Tom Walsh's parable is a story of the ages, a timeless exploration of ideas and thoughts that all of us wonder about, a sincere and heartfelt portrait of a man who has no past and no future, but who learns to make the most of each precious present moment as it comes.

   
   

     

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