History Quote by Joseph O'Neill
““But surely everyone can also testify to another, less reckonable kind of homesickness, one having to do with unsettlements that cannot be located in spaces of geography or history; and accordingly it's my belief that the communal, contractual phenomenon of New York cricket is underwritten, there where the print is finest, by the same agglomeration of unspeakable individual longings that underwrites cricket played anywhere--longings concerned with horizons and potentials sighted or hallucinated and in any event lost long ago, tantalisms that touch on the undoing of losses too private and reprehensible to be acknowledged to oneself, let alone to others. I cannot be the first to wonder if what we see, when we see men in white take to a cricket field, is men imagining an environment of justice.””
About This Quote
Source Novel: Netherland, 2008
Homesickness can be an intangible yearning for belonging beyond geography, tied to deep personal longings.
In simple terms: Longing for belonging beyond place.
Key Takeaway
Explore inner sources of belonging.
Themes
home
longing
identity
displacement
Mood
melancholic
thoughtful
Type
literary
reflective
When to use this quote
- migration
- artistic creation
- community building
- personal reflection
Key Concepts
existentialism
urban sociology
psychology
Questions to Reflect On
- How do you define home?
- What unspoken longings shape your choices?
A Different Perspective
Such yearning may idealize places that never existed.
