Letter

Explore 347 quotes from the following medium: Letter

Poetry is the expression, in human language restored to its essential rhythm, of the mysterious meaning of the aspects of existence: in this way it confers authenticity on our time on earth and constitutes the only spiritual task there is.

Stepháne Mallarmé

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Topic

Poetry

Author

Stepháne Mallarmé

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1884 1880s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Mallarme, Stephane. Letter to Leo d'Orfer. 27 June 1884.

Current Citation

Mallarme, Stephane. Selected Letters of Stéphane Mallarmé. University of Chicago Press, 1988.

There are truths which are not for all men, nor for all times.

Voltaire

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Topic

Nature of truth

Author

Voltaire

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1761 1760s 18th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Voltaire. Letter to Francois-Joachim de Pierre. 23 Apr. 1761.

Axiom: hatred of the bourgeois is the beginning of wisdom.

Gustave Flaubert

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

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Topic

Bourgeoisie Class warfare

Author

Gustave Flaubert

Source

Letters of Gustave Flaubert

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Letter to George Sand. 17 May 1867.

Current Citation

Flaubert, Gustave. Flaubert-Sand: The Correspondence, translated by Francis Steegmuller. Knopf, 1993, no. 77.

I hate Congress—I hate the army—I hate the world—I hate myself. The whole is a mass of fools and knaves.

Alexander Hamilton

More information about this quote

Topic

Political frustration Over it

Author

Alexander Hamilton

Source

Letters of Alexander Hamilton

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1780 1780s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hamilton, Alexander. Letter to Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens. 12 Sept. 1780.

Current Citation

Hamilton, Alexander. "From Alexander Hamilton to Lieutenant Colonel John Laurens, [12 September 1780]." Founders Online, National Archives, founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-02-02-0851.

All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.

Ernest Hemingway

Esquire

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Topic

Power of literature

Author

Ernest Hemingway

Source

Old Newsman Writes: A Letter from Cuba Esquire

Medium

Letter Magazine

Language

English

Time

1934 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hemingway, Ernest. "Old Newsman Writes: A Letter from Cuba." Esquire Magazine, 1 Dec. 1934.

Current Citation

Hemingway, Ernest. "Old Newsman Writes: A Letter from Cuba." By-line Ernest Hemingway, edited by William White. Scribner, 2003.

I have ever hated all nations, professions, and communities, and all my love is towards individuals...I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth.

Jonathan Swift

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Topic

Individual vs. the collective

Author

Jonathan Swift

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1725 1720s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Swift, Jonathan. Letter to Alexander Pope. 29 Sept. 1725.

Current Citation

Swift, Jonathan. "Swift to Alexander Pope, 29 September 1725." The Major Works, edited by Angus Ross and David Woolley. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Departure beyond the borders of my country is for me equivalent to death.

Boris Pasternak

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Topic

Travel

Author

Boris Pasternak

Medium

Letter

Language

Russian

Time

1958 1950s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Pasternak, Boris. Letter to Nikita Khrushchev. 30 Oct. 1958.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out.

William Tecumseh Sherman

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Topic

Horrors of war War American Civil War

Author

William Tecumseh Sherman

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1864 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Sherman, William Tecumseh. Letter to Mayor James M. Calhoun and E. E. Rawson and S. C. Wells. 12 Sept. 1864.

Current Citation

Sherman, William Tecumseh. Sherman's Civil War: Selected Correspondence of William T. Sherman, 1860-1865. University of North Carolina Press, 1999, ch. 12.

Worst of all I fear mediocrity.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

More information about this quote

Topic

Fear Mediocrity Self-doubt

Author

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Source

Letters of Fyodor Dostoevsky

Medium

Letter

Language

Russian

Time

1867 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor. Letter to Sofya Ivanova. c. 29 Sept. 1867.

Current Citation

Dostoevsky, Fyodor. "Letter to Sofya Ivanova, ca. September 29, 1867." Fyodor Dostoevsky: Complete Letters: 1860-1867, edited and translated by David A. Lowe, Ardis, 1989.

There never was a good War, or a bad Peace.

Benjamin Franklin

Read this letter at the National Archives website

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Topic

War and peace War Peace Anti-war

Author

Benjamin Franklin

Source

Letters of Benjamin Franklin

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1783 1780s 18th century

Era

American Revolutionary Period

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. Letter to Josiah Quincy, Sr. 11 Sept. 1783.

Current Citation

Franklin, Benjamin. "To Josiah Quincy, Sr., September 11, 1783." Franklin Papers, Yale University, franklinpapers.org/framedVolumes.jsp.

I cannot live without books.

Thomas Jefferson

Letter to John Adams, 1815

Read this letter at the National Archives website

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Topic

Books

Author

Thomas Jefferson

Source

Letter to John Adams, 1815 Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1815 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to John Adams. 10 June 1815.

Current Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "Jefferson to Adams • Monticello, June 10." The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams, edited by Lester J. Cappon. Omohundro Institute and The University of North Carolina Press, 1988.

God knows I never sought anything in you except yourself; I wanted simply you, nothing of yours.

Héloïse

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More information about this quote

Topic

Ulterior motives Purity of love Love

Author

Héloïse

Source

Letters of Abelard and Heloise

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

1132 1130s 12th century

Era

Middle Ages

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Héloïse. Letter to Abelard. c. 1150.

Current Citation

Héloïse. "Letter 2: Heloise to Abelard." The Letters of Abelard and Heloise, edited and translated by Betty Radice. Penguin Books, 2004.

Truth is on the march, and nothing will stop it.

Émile Zola

On the Dreyfus affair.

More information about this quote

Topic

Truth Progress

Author

Émile Zola

Source

J'Accuse…!

Medium

Open letter Letter

Language

French

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Zola, Emile. "J'Accuse…!" L'Aurore, 13 Jan. 1898.

Current Citation

Zola, Emile. "J'Accuse...!" The Dreyfus Affair: 'J'Accuse' and Other Writings, edited by Alain Pagès, translated by Eleanor Levieux. Yale University Press, 1998.

I am very fond of truth, but not at all of martyrdom.

Voltaire

More information about this quote

Topic

Martyrdom

Author

Voltaire

Medium

Letter

Language

French

Time

1776 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Voltaire. Letter to Jean le Rond d'Alembert. 8 Feb. 1776.

I attribute my success to this: I never gave or took an excuse.

Florence Nightingale

More information about this quote

Topic

Buck stops here Success Excuses Personal responsibility

Speaker

Florence Nightingale

Source

Letters of Florence Nightingale

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1861 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Nightingale, Florence. Letter to Miss H. Bonham Carter. 1861.

I am happier when I have something to compose, for that, after all, is my sole delight and passion.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

More information about this quote

Topic

Creativity Music

Author

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Medium

Letter

Language

German

Time

1777 1770s 18th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. Letter to his father. 11 Oct. 1777.

Current Citation

Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus. "Letter to his father in Salzburg. Munich, October 11, 1777." Mozart's Letters, Mozart's Life, translated and edited by Robert Spaethling. W. W. Norton & Company, 2005.

Our liberty depends on freedom of the press, and that cannot be limited without being lost.

Thomas Jefferson

Read this letter at the National Archives website

More information about this quote

Topic

Freedom of the press First Amendment Constitutional theory

Author

Thomas Jefferson

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1786 1780s 18th century

Era

American Revolutionary Period

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to James Currie. 28 Jan. 1786.

Current Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. "Letter to James Currie, 28 Jan. 1786." The Papers of Thomas Jefferson, edited by Julian P. Boyd. Vol. 9, Princeton University Press, 1954.

Never fear the want of business. A man who qualifies himself well for his calling, never fails of employment.

Thomas Jefferson

More information about this quote

Topic

Jobs Work

Author

Thomas Jefferson

Source

Letters of Thomas Jefferson

Medium

Letter

Language

English

Time

1792 1790s 18th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Jefferson, Thomas. Letter to Peter Carr. 22 June 1792.

Unexpected money is a delight. The same sum is a bitterness when you expected more.

Mark Twain

More information about this quote

Topic

Windfalls Money Expectations

Author

Mark Twain

Source

Letters of Mark Twain

Medium

Letter

Statement Type

Irony

Language

English

Time

1878 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Twain, Mark. Letter to Orion Clemens. 23 Mar. 1878.

Current Citation

Twain, Mark. Letter to Orion Clemens, 23 Mar. 1878. Collected Nonfiction of Mark Twain. Vol. 1, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2016.

It is better, of course, to know useless things than to know nothing.

Seneca the Younger

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Topic

Knowledge Ignorance

Author

Seneca the Younger

Source

Epistles (Seneca the Younger)

Medium

Letter

Language

Latin

Time

65 60s 1st century

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Seneca the Younger. Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium [Moral Letters to Lucilius]. c. 65 AD.

Current Citation

Seneca, Lucius Annaeus. Letters on Ethics, translated by Margaret Graver and A. A. Long. University of Chicago Press, 2017.