Letter-writing was once a normal part of life. Today, with dozens of communication technologies to choose from many people have moved away from letter writing. But that may be changing as millennials who did not grow up with letters and “snail mail” are introduced to the joy of the hand-written letter.
Here are a few of our favorite quotations on letter-writing. Do you have a favorite?
I love the rebelliousness of snail mail, and I love anything that can arrive with a postage stamp. There's something about that person's breath and hands on the letter.
~Diane Lane
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
Letters are among the most significant memorial a person can leave behind them. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
There must be millions of people all over the world who never get any love letters... I could be their leader. ~Charlie Brown
To acknowledge the receipt of letters is always proper, to remove doubts of their miscarriage. ~George Washington
To write is human, to receive a letter: Devine!
~Susan Lendroth
A letter is the most basic—yet the most flexible—mode of correspondence, regardless of its subject matter.
~Scribendi
Always write angry letters to your enemies. Never mail them.
~James Fallows
Letters are something from you. It's a different kind of intention than writing an e-mail.
~Keanu Reeves
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
My most cherished possessions are my grandma's letters and my vintage Martha Washington cookbook.
~Sandra Lee
I keep all of my letters, postcards, and thank you notes. I'll keep them forever!
~Jane Levy
I'm pretty sure people are going to start writing letters again once the email fad passes.
~Willie Geist
I think I became a writer because I used to write letters to my friends, and I used to love writing them. I loved the idea that you can put marks on a page and send it off, and two days later, someone laughs somewhere else in the world.
~David Nicholls
I grew up writing thank-you notes. Real, honest-to-goodness, pen-and-ink, stamped and posted letters. More than simple habit, it's about what the commitment to expressing your thoughts and feelings in writing says about the character of the writer. About the joy, such notes bring to the reader.
~Taylor Mali
More than kisses letters mingle souls.
~John Donne
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
To send a letter is a good way to go somewhere without moving anything but your heart. ~Phyllis Theroux