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
The true character of epistolary style is playfulness and urbanity.
—Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French Writer, Moralist
Who writes love letters grows thin; who carries them, fat.
—Dutch Proverb
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
A prudent man will read the letter from back to front.
—Turkish Proverb
A woman’s best love letters are always written to the man she is betraying.
—Lawrence Durrell (1912–90) British Biographer, Poet, Playwright, Novelist
Never write a letter if you can help it, and never destroy one.
—John A. Macdonald (1815–91) Prime Minister of Canada
The one good thing about not seeing you is that I can write you letters.
—Svetlana Alliluyeva (1926–2011) Russian Defector, Memoirist
If you must reread old love letters, better pick a room without mirrors.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
A man who publishes his letters becomes a nudist—nothing shields him from the world’s gaze except his bare skin. A writer, writing away, can always fix himself up to make himself more presentable, but a man who has written a letter is stuck with it for all time.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
A letter from the heart can be read on the face.
—African Proverb
A good face they say, is a letter of recommendation. O Nature, Nature, why art thou so dishonest, as ever to send men with these false recommendations into the World!
—Henry Fielding (1707–54) English Novelist, Dramatist
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
He who writes love letters must have clammy hands.
—German Proverb
More than kisses, letters mingle souls.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
The first love letters are written with the eyes.
—French Proverb
A dream that is not interpreted is like a letter that has not been opened.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Sir, more than kisses, letters mingle souls. For, thus friends absent speak.
—John Donne (1572–1631) English Poet, Cleric
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
To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart.
—Phyllis Theroux (b.1939) American Journalist, Author
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
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
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
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
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 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
A woman seldom writes her Mind, but in her Postscript.
—Richard Steele (1672–1729) Irish Writer, Politician
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
I hold that the parentheses are by far the most important parts of a non-business letter.
—D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) English Novelist, Playwright, Poet, Essayist, Literary Critic
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