50 Homecoming Quotes To Celebrate Your Return

By Clifton Sankofa

School Leader, Language Arts Expert & Master Quote Curator

Published December 29, 2022

Celebrate your return home with these awesome homecoming quotes.

There are many kinds of homecomings.

For many graduating high school, homecoming means football, festivities, celebrations, and choosing a king and queen.

Tell us your favorite homecoming quote in the comment section below.

What are the benefits of reading these homecoming quotes?

Homecoming marks a transition from high schooler to adulthood, the last time to party with your friends before your next chapter.

People in the military see homecoming as something very different.

For them, homecoming represents the end of a long tour and a chance to reunite with loved ones and family.

Travelers see homecoming as a time to reset and reconnect after being away for a long time.

No matter where your life’s journey takes you, eventually, we all experience some sort of homecoming.

Charles Dickens once said, “Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.”

Each person has their definition of home, but we all benefit from returning to our roots.

Homecoming quotes and sayings

1. “Poetry is a sort of homecoming.” — Paul Celan

2. “As truth be told, homecoming never gets old.” — Hlovate

3. “Home’s where you go when you run out of homes.” — John le Carré

4. “Homecoming means football, festivities, and friendship.” — Anonymous

5. “Homecoming means coming home to what is in your heart.” — Anonymous

6. “Deployment tears your heart in two, only reconnected at homecoming.” — Anonymous

7. “Sweet childish days, that were as long. As twenty days are now.” — William Wordsworth

8. “Say what you want about aging, it’s still the only way to have old friends.” — Robert Brault

9. Every parting is a form of death — as every reunion is a type of heaven.” — Amelia B. Edwards

10. “The ruckus of homecoming is brutally enjoyable and everyone makes me feel like a champion.” — Miguel Syjuco

11. “Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.” — Charles Dickens

12. “The surest measure of the things that really matter in life is that they generate anniversaries and reunions.” — Robert Brault

13. “Notice how your memories nest, one inside another — so close-fitting that you can’t peel one free without releasing others.” — Dr. SunWolf

Homecoming quotes for Instagram

14. “A magical thing… sweet to remember…” — Oliver Herford

15. “Was he my home, then, my homecoming?” — André Aciman

16. “For there we loved, and where we love is home.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes

17. “Nostalgia is a file that removes the rough edges from the good old days.” — Doug Larson

18. “Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” — Robert Frost

19. “Home is a place you grow up wanting to leave, and grow old wanting to get back to.” — John Ed Pearce

20. “Nostalgia is like a grammar lesson: you find the present tense, but the past perfect!” — Owens Lee Pomeroy

21. “You are my homecoming. When I’m with you and we’re well together, there is nothing more I want.” — André Aciman

22. “Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you wish to never lose.” — Bob Brush

23. “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” — Elisabeth Foley

25. “For there we loved, and where we love is home. Home that our feet may leave, but not our hearts.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes

25. “What we remember from childhood we remember forever — permanent ghosts, stamped, imprinted, eternally seen.” — Cynthia Ozick

Homecoming poster quotes

26. “We only part to meet again.” — John Gay

27. “Here I am, after all, welcome home, I’m yours.” — Iris Murdoch

28. “These were the archives of the history of his own heart.” — Max Nordau

29. “Aloha. It meant welcome and homecoming. It meant love.” — Clemence McLaren

30. “It was as if some silver chime had waked a chord in his memory.” — Florence Bone

31. “Kindred hearts no distance parts.” — James Lendall Basford. Seven Seventy-Seven Sensations

32. “It’s the prayer of the wandering, storm-tossed soul…When we go home again!” — Esther M. Clark Hill

33. “My dear, dear Friend… in thy voice I catch the language of my former heart.” — William Wordsworth

34. “Because we cannot repair the loss of years away, homecomings are almost always conflicted. ” — Charles Ringma

35. “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” — Henry David Thoreau

36. “Returning home is the most difficult part of long-distance hiking; You have grown outside the puzzle and your piece no longer fits.” — Cindy Ross

37. “When time passes, it’s the people who knew you whom you want to see; they’re the ones you can talk to. When enough time passes, what’s it matter what they did to you?” — John Irving

Homecoming quotes for daughter

38. “How powerful is the spell of home!” — Silas X. Floyd Home

39. “What is the charm that makes old things so sweet?” — Sarah Doudney

40. “The next best thing to the enjoyment of a good time, is the recollection of it.” — James Lendall Basford

41. “It’s not the Olympics. It’s Concord, New Hampshire, and a homecoming should reflect the community I’m part of.” — Christa McAuliffe

42. “And that was my homecoming. It was fine, I guess. Getting back feels like your first breath after nearly drowning. Even if it hurts, it’s good.” — Phil Klay

43. “There are no times like the old times, —they shall never be forgot! There is no place like the old place, —keep green the dear old spot!” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, “No Time Like the Old Time”

Homecoming quotes for church

44. “In my Father’s house are many mansions: if [it were] not [so], I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.” — John 14:2.

High school homecoming quotes

45. “Nobody cares if you can’t dance well. Just get up and dance.” — Dave Barry

46. “We’re fools whether or not we dance, so we may as well dance.” — Anonymous

47. “Because homecoming came first, and there was the homecoming court. The five guys on homecoming court were disqualified from being in the prom court. So being prom king was being sixth most popular.” — Andy Richter

Alumni homecoming quotes

48. “I was homecoming queen. I was the star of my basketball team.” — Marla Maples

49. “School spirit isn’t just about going to the games, it’s also about dressing up for homecoming week!” — Anonymous

Homecoming quotes in the Odyssey

50. “Nevertheless I long—I pine, all my days— to travel home and see the dawn of my return.” — Homer

Famous homecoming stories

One of the most famous homecoming stories is that of Odysseus in the Odyssey by Homer.

In this very long tale, the main character must travel all over the world.

He faces countless challenges during his adventures.

He sees the world and realizes that despite all of the world’s exotic experiences and unique wonders, home is where he belongs.

His desire to reach home again is what drives him to complete superhuman tasks.

For some, the idea of returning home drives them to keep going.

For others, the idea of staying away from where they come from may provide the same motivation.

We can take ourselves to new places and make new homes, but what ‘home’ means to us remains the same.