Home is where the heart is.

The proverb says that home is not an address but wherever the people we love are: a family in a rented room is at home; a person alone in a mansion may not be. It is used to comfort the displaced, to justify a move, and to decorate cushions and doormats, where it has become a sentimental fixture.

It is fairly young as English proverbs go: it has been recorded in this form since the nineteenth century, and it is sometimes attributed to Pliny the Elder without any evidence. It belongs to the same family of feeling as John Howard Payne’s song “Home, Sweet Home” (1823), with its “there’s no place like home”, which The Wizard of Oz later turned into a spell.

The saying has been borrowed almost word for word into other languages, and has spawned variations such as “home is where you hang your hat”. Its durability comes from a simple reversal: it defines a place by an affection, which is why it consoles the emigrant, whose heart is often in two places at once.

English proverb