When he wrote a letter, he would put that which was most material in the postscript, as if it had been a by-matter.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
There must be millions of people all over the world who never get any love letters… I could be their leader.
—Charles M. Schulz (1922–2000) American Cartoonist, Writer, Artist
The post office has a great charm at one point of our lives. When you have lived to my age, you will begin to think letters are never worth going through the rain for.
—Jane Austen (1775–1817) English Novelist
Who writes love letters grows thin; who carries them, fat.
—Dutch Proverb
Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
If you are in doubt whether to write a letter or not, don’t. And the advice applies to many doubts in life besides that of letter writing.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton (1803–73) British Novelist, Poet, Politician
The word that is heard perishes, but the letter that is written remains.
—Common Proverb
Never write a letter if you can help it, and never destroy one.
—John A. Macdonald (1815–91) Prime Minister of Canada
One of the pleasures of reading old letters is the knowledge that they need no answer.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
Chain letters are the postal equivalent of intestinal flu: you get it and pass it along to your friends.
—Bob Garfield (b.1955) American Journalist
A letter from the heart can be read on the face.
—African Proverb
It does me good to write a letter which is not a response to a demand, a gratuitous letter, so to speak, which has accumulated in me like the waters of a reservoir.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.
—Phyllis Theroux (b.1939) American Journalist, Author
A letter is an unannounced visit, the postman the agent of rude surprises. One ought to reserve an hour a week for receiving letters and afterwards take a bath.
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German Philosopher, Scholar, Writer
A Letter is a Joy of Earth –
It is denied the Gods.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
Go to the effort. Invest the time. Write the letter. Make the apology. Take the trip. Purchase the gift. Do it. The seized opportunity renders joy. The neglected brings regret.
—Max Lucado (b.1955) American Author, Minister, Speaker
Life is too precious to be spent in this weaving and unweaving of false impressions, and it is better to live quietly under some degree of misrepresentation than to attempt to remove it by the uncertain process of letter-writing.
—George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans) (1819–80) English Novelist
Letters are those winged messengers that can fly from east to west on embassies of love.
—Jeremiah Brown Howell
More than kisses, letters mingle souls.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
A dream that is not interpreted is like a letter that has not been opened.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
And none will hear the postman’s knock
Without a quickening of the heart.
For who can bear to feel himself forgotten?
—W. H. Auden (1907–73) British-born American Poet, Dramatist
The true character of epistolary style is playfulness and urbanity.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
I consider it a good rule for letter-writing to leave unmentioned what the recipient already knows, and instead tell him something new.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
The best time to frame an answer to the letters of a friend, is the moment you receive them. Then the warmth of friendship, and the intelligence received, most forcibly cooperate.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
A short letter to a distant friend is, in my opinion, an insult like that of a slight bow or cursory salutation—a proof of unwillingness to do much, even where there is a necessity of doing something.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
A strange volume of real life in the daily packet of the postman. Eternal love and instant payment.
—Douglas William Jerrold (1803–57) English Writer, Dramatist, Wit
Grammar is the grave of letters.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
It seems a long time since the morning mail could be called correspondence.
—Jacques Barzun (b.1907) American Cultural Historian, Philosopher
A marriage in later years sends a letter to the grave digger.
—German Proverb
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