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
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
A letter always seemed to me like Immortality, for is it not the Mind alone, without corporeal friend?
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
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
He who writes love letters must have clammy hands.
—German Proverb
If you must reread old love letters, better pick a room without mirrors.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
A good figure is better than a reference letter.
—French Proverb
To acknowledge the receipt of letters is always proper, to remove doubts of their miscarriage.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
When the spirits sink too low, the best cordial is to read over all the letters of one’s friends.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
It seems a long time since the morning mail could be called correspondence.
—Jacques Barzun (b.1907) French-born American Historian, Philosophers
To find out your real opinion of someone, judge the impression you have when you first see a letter from them.
—Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German Philosopher
In an age like ours, which is not given to letter-writing, we forget what an important part it used to play in people’s lives.
—Anatole Broyard (1920–90) American Literary Critic
If I had more time I would write a shorter letter.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Letter writing is the only device for combining solitude with good company.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
A dream that is not interpreted is like a letter that has not been opened.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
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
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 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
It is by the benefit of letters that absent friends are, in a manner, brought together.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
Somebody just back of you while you are fishing is as bad as someone looking over your shoulder while you write a letter to your girl.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
The one good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters.
—Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926–2011) Russian Defector, Memoirist
The word that is heard perishes, but the letter that is written remains.
—Common Proverb
The first love letters are written with the eyes.
—French Proverb
Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
I have received no more than one or two letters in my life that were worth the postage.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
What a wonderful thing is the mail, capable of conveying across continents a warm human hand-clasp.
—Unknown
Friends will write me letters. They run out of room on the front of the letter. They write “over” on the bottom of the letter. Like I’m that much of a moron. Like I need that there. Because if it wasn’t there, I’d get to the bottom of the page: “And so Kathy and I went shopping and we..”. That’s the craziest thing! I don’t know why she would just end it that way.
—Ellen DeGeneres (b.1958) American Comedian, Television Host
Letters are those winged messengers that can fly from east to west on embassies of love.
—Jeremiah Brown Howell
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
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 Christian Author, Minister
When a man sends you an impudent letter, sit right down and give it back to him with interest ten times compounded, and then throw both letters in the wastebasket.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Let your letter be written as accurately as you are able—I mean as to language, grammar, and stops; but as to the matter of it the less trouble you give yourself the better it will be. Letters should be easy and natural, and convey to the persons to whom we send just what we should say if we were with them.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
I hear and behold God in every object, yet understand God not in the least…
I see something of God each hour of the twenty-four, and each moment then,
In the faces of men and women I see God, and in my own face in the glass;
I find letters from God dropped in the street, and everyone is signed by God’s name,
And I leave them where they are, for I know
that whereso’er I go
Others will punctually come forever and ever.
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist, American, Poet, Essayist, Journalist
Or don’t you like to write letters. I do because it’s such a swell way to keep from working and yet feel you’ve done something.
—Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American Author, Journalist, Short Story Writer
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
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
A prudent man will read the letter from back to front.
—Turkish Proverb
A letter does not blush.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
A Letter is a Joy of Earth –
It is denied the Gods.
—Emily Dickinson (1830–86) American Poet
A marriage in later years sends a letter to the grave digger.
—German Proverb
Grammar is the grave of letters.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
A woman seldom writes her Mind, but in her Postscript.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
A letter from the heart can be read on the face.
—African Proverb
O ay, letters – I had letters – I am persecuted with letters – I hate letters – nobody knows how to write letters; and yet one has ’em, one does not know why – they serve one to pin up one’s hair.
—William Congreve (1670–1729) English Playwright, Poet
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
Politeness is as much concerned in answering letters within a reasonable time, as it is in returning a bow, immediately.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Never write a letter while you are angry.
—Chinese Proverb
A profusion of fancies and quotations is out of place in a love-letter.—True feeling is always direct, and never deviates into by-ways to cull flowers of rhetoric.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
More than kisses, letters mingle souls.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric