Letters Quotes - Page 14

• There are geniuses in trade as well as in war, or the state, or letters; and the reason why this or that man is fortunate is not to be told. It lies in the man: that is all anybody can tell you about it.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  War, Lying, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.207

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• Personal & Confidential. Letters so marked should be. When the contents are only printed matter, though, the minifrauder succeeds in sowing illwill & ire.

  Malcolm Forbes

  Writing, Sowing, Matter

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• In making up my mind as to what Mr. Lincoln really believed, I do not take into consideration the evidence of unnamed persons or the contents of anonymous letters; I take the testimony of those who knew and loved him, of those to whom he opened his heart and to whom he spoke in the freedom of perfect confidence.

  Robert Green Ingersoll

  Heart, Perfect, Mind

  Robert Green Ingersoll (1920). “Ingersoll: Fifty Great Selections, Lectures, Tributes, After Dinner Speeches and Essays, Carefully Selected from the Twelve Volume Dresden Edition of Colonel Ingersoll's Complete Works”

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• If doubtful whether to end with "yours faithfully," or "yours truly," or "yours most truly," &c. (there are at least a dozen varieties, before you reach "yours affectionately"), refer to your correspondent's last letter, and make your winding-up at least as friendly as his: in fact, even if a shade more friendly, it will do no harm!

  Lewis Carroll

  Friendly, Dozen, Shade

  Lewis Carroll (1908). “Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing”, p.11, Library of Alexandria

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• I have never injured anybody with a mordant poem; my
  verse contains charges against nobody. Ingenuous, I have
  shunned wit steeped in venom--not a letter of mine is dipped
  in poisonous jest.

  Ovid

  Poetry, Jest, Wit

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• Bolkenstein, a Minister, was speaking on the Dutch programme from London, and he said that they ought to make a collection of diaries and letters after the war. Of course, they all made a rush at my diary immediately. Just imagine how interesting it would be if I were to publish a romance of the "Secret Annexe." The title alone would be enough to make people think it was a detective story.

  Anne Frank

  War, Thinking, People

  Anne Frank (1954). “The Diary of Anne Frank”, Pan

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• European society has always been divided into classes in a way that American society never has been. A European writer considers himself to be part of an old and honorable tradition--of intellectual activity, of letters--and his choice of a vocation does not cause him any uneasy wonder as to whether or not it will cost him all his friends. But this tradition does not exist in America.

  James A. Baldwin

  Class, America, Choices

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• Universal empire is the prerogative of a writer. His concerns are with all mankind, and though he cannot command their obedience,he can assign them their duty. The Republic of Letters is more ancient than monarchy, and of far higher character in the world than the vassal court of Britain.

  Thomas Paine

  Character, Empires, World

  Thomas Paine (1819). “The American Crisis”, p.19

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• Most personal correspondence of today consists of letters the first half of which are given over to an indexed statement of why the writer hasn't written before, followed by one paragraph of small talk, with the remainder devoted to reasons why it is imperative that the letter be brought to a close.

  Robert Benchley

  Half, Today, Firsts

  Robert Benchley (1943). “Benchley beside himself”

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• What we are told of the inhabitants of Brazil, that they never die but of old age, is attributed to the tranquility and serenity of their climate; I rather attribute it to the tranquility and serenity of their souls, which are free from all passion, thought, or any absorbing and unpleasant labors. Those people spend their lives in an admirable simplicity and ignorance, without letters, without law, without king, without any manner of religion.

  Michel de Montaigne

  Kings, Ignorance, Passion

  Michel de Montaigne (1946). “The essays”

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• Predictions that unit cohesion could not survive honesty about sexual orientation were simply wrong. What does threaten morale arethe prolonged investigations, the questioning of friends and co-workers, the searches of barracks for magazines and letters, the witch hunts.

  Anna Quindlen

  Honesty, Doe, Magazines

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• In the beginning was the word, the word
  That from the solid bases of the light
  Abstracted all the letters of the void.

  Dylan Thomas

  Light, Void, Language

  Dylan Thomas (2003). “Dylan Thomas Selected Poems, 1934-1952”, p.24, New Directions Publishing

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• Don't drag candidates through weeks of endless interviews. Don't flake out on interviews. At DeveloperAuction, we often have offer letters prepared in advance, so we can hand them to great candidates as they are leaving the office.

  Matt Mickiewicz

  Hands, Office, Leaving

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• One might plausibly contend that Congress violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the constitutional doctrine of separation of powers when it exonerates itself from the impositions of the laws it obligates people outside the legislature to obey.

  Ruth Bader Ginsburg

  Law, People, Political

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• The Tax Collector's letters are invariably mimeographed, and all they say is that you still haven't paid him.

  William Saroyan

  Taxes, Stills, Collectors

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• The Nature of Familiar Letters, written, as it were, to the Moment, while the Heart is agitated by Hopes and Fears, on Events undecided, must plead an Excuse for the Bulk of a Collection of this Kind. Mere Facts and Characters might be comprised in a much smaller Compass: But, would they be equally interesting?

  Samuel Richardson

  Character, Heart, Interesting

  Samuel Richardson (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Samuel Richardson (Illustrated)”, p.3951, Delphi Classics

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• Many people believe letters the most personal and revealing form of communication. In them, we expect to find the charmer at his nap, slumped, open-mouthed, profoundly himself without thought for appearances. Yet, this is not quite true. Letters are above all useful as a means of expressing the ideal self; and no other method of communication is quite so good for this purpose. In conversation, those uneasy eyes upon you, those lips ready with an emendation before you have begun to speak, are a powerful deterrent to unreality, even to hope.

  Elizabeth Hardwick

  Powerful, Believe, Communication

  Elizabeth Hardwick (2017). “The Collected Essays of Elizabeth Hardwick”, p.27, New York Review of Books

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• I get up to 400 letters a week, so I have a full-time PA, but I try to answer everything. People don't seem to realise that if they send something living in the post it's going to die on the way. Especially when you wrap it in a polythene bag.

  Alan Titchmarsh

  People, Trying, Way

  Source: www.mirror.co.uk

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• It is easy to be a slave to the letter, and difficult to enter into the spirit; easy to obey a number of outward rules, difficult to enter intelligently and self-sacrificingly into the will of God.

  Frederic Farrar

  Self, Numbers, Soul

  Frederic William Farrar (1875). “The Life of Christ”, p.118

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• There would be this algebraic equation with an equals sign in the middle, and all the components would have different letters of the alphabet. It would come out right with x+z^2+t/q=y+co, and the co would be clothes off!

  Tom Stoppard

  Science, Clothes, Different

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• Chieftains must understand that the spirit of the law is greater than its letter.

  Attila the Hun

  Law, Spirit, Greater

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• In the world of letters, learning and knowledge are one, and books are the source of both; whereas in science, as in life, learning and knowledge are distinct, and the study of things, and not of books, is the source of the latter.

  Thomas Huxley

  Book, Knowledge, World

  Thomas Henry Huxley (1997). “The Major Prose of Thomas Henry Huxley”, p.13, University of Georgia Press

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• It was '86. We were a big enough name and we had enough cache that MTV wanted to play us, so, along with Michael Jackson and Madonna, they played our upside-down, black-and-white, backward, single unedited footage of a rock quarry with orange letters over the top of it and called it art.

  Michael Stipe

  Art, Black And White, Rocks

  Source: www.interviewmagazine.com

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• Monogamy, monotony. There's only a couple of letters...

  Richard Linklater

  Couple, Monogamy, Monotony

  "The Before Midnight Team: Reunion of the Year 2013". Interview with Lauren Bans, www.gq.com. December 5, 2013.

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• Letters had always defeated distance, but with the coming of e-mail, time seemed to be vanquished as well.

  Thomas Mallon

  Distance, Mail, Defeated

  Thomas Mallon (2009). “Yours Ever: People and Their Letters”, p.3, Vintage

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