Quotes from my Blog. Letters

– Boris Pasternak (1890—1960), from a letter to Marina Tsvetaeva (1892—1941), in: “The Same Solitude”, by Catherine Ciepiela

“… do you think, that one can love two people in the same way and that one can experience two identical sensations about them? I don’t think so, since our individuality changes at every moment of its existence.”

– Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), from a letter to George Sand (1804—1876), dated January, 1867

in: “The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters”, translated from the French by A.L. McKenzie

“God’s earth is good. It is only we on it who are bad.”

– Anton Chekhov (1860—1904), from a letter to Alexey Suvorin (1834—1912), Moscow, dated December 9, 1889, in: “The Selected Letters of Anton Chekhov”, translated from the Russian by Sidonie Lederer

“You beautiful one – I know we belong to each other – A sweet kiss – Remember me to all. I’m with you – ”

– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), Lake George, New York, dated July 13, 1928, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“Dear, dear boy, you are more to me than any one of them has any idea; you are the atmosphere of beauty through which I see life; you are the incarnation of all lovely things. When we are out of tune, all colour goes from things for me, but we are never really out of tune. I think of you day and night.”

– Oscar Wilde (1854—1900), from a letter to Lord Alfred Douglas (1870—1945), dated August 13, 1894, in: “Oscar Wilde: A Life In Letters” by Merlin Holland

How poor are words in conveying the heights of splendor as I would like to! Yet how rich are our hearts that they can feel – no, more, experience – these splendors! How wonderful it is that even in the most contradictory surroundings we can hold fast to this precious treasure in its fullness! And how glorious that two people like us are able, despite the poverty of speech and despite all other obstacles, to share it fully with one another!”

– Eberhard Arnold (1883—1935), from a letter to Emmy von Hollander (1884—1980), dated March 30, 1907, in: “Love letters. Eberhard Arnold and Emmy von Hollander”

“You should always protest against injustice and folly, you should bawl, froth at the mouth, and smash when you can.”

– Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), from a letter to George Sand (1804—1876), Croisset, dated September 5, 1873, in: “The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters”, translated from the French by A.L. McKenzie

“ – A very warm and quiet kiss goes to you – and something much much more – something like a river running deep down under the surface of the earth – ”

– Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), from a letter to Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), Portage, Wisconsin, dated July 27, 1928, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“At every moment of my life, God knows, I have always feared of ending you, not God. I have tried to please you, rather than him. It was your command and not the love of God that led me to the religious life. See how unhappy, how unspeakably wretched, is the life that I am living, if I endure all this for nothing here, and can look forward to no future reward. For a long time my pretense has deceived you, as it has deceived many others, into mistaking hypocrisy for piety. So you ardently commend yourself to my prayers, demanding of me what I expect of you. Do not, I beg you, have such confidence in me that you cease helping me by your prayers. Do not, I beg you, think that I am healthy and so withdraw the grace of healing from me. Do not believe that I am not in need and put off aiding me in my necessity. Do not consider me strong, or I may collapse and fall before you can sustain me.”

– Héloïse d’Argenteuil (1101? —1163/4?), from a letter to Pierre Abelard (1079—1142), in: “The Letters of Heloise and Abelard. A translation of their correspondence and related writings”, translated from the French by Mary Martin McLaughlin with Bonnie Wheeler

“Write soon and remember all the time that I love you.”

– Captain Hunnicutt, from a letter to Virginia Dickerson, dated January 11, 1944, in: “Dearest Virginia. Love Letters from a Cavalry Officer in the South Pacific”, edited by Gayle Hunnicutt

“My treasure,

Got up to pen you a few words as you are occupying my mind like an incubus.”

– Henry Miller (1891—1980), from a letter to Brenda Venus (born 1947), dated January 27, 11:30 PM, 1978, in: “Dear, Dear Brenda: The Love Letters of Henry Miller to Brenda Venus”

“Boris, I do not write true letters. The real ones don’t even touch the paper.”

– Marina Tsvetaeva (1892—1941), from a letter to Boris Pasternak (1890—1960), in: “A Russian Psyche: The Poetic Mind Of Marina Tsvetaeva” by Alyssa W. Dinega

“I’m in a happier state than I’ve experienced since your departure – yes, truly, it’s happiness, and the best kind, this strength of love that I feel between us, this close bond uniting us amid all this gloom. I love you so. I’m not thinking about the day when I’ll see you again, any more than I ever evoke our past – I too am blocked against all memory. But I don’t need to see you – I’m not separated from you, I’m still in the same world as you.”

– Simone de Beauvoir (1908—1986), from a letter to Jean-Paul Sartre (1905—1980), Paris, dated Thursday, September 7, 1939, in: “Letters to Sartre”, translated from the French by Quintin Hoare

“I am reading now books on hygiene. Oh! but they are comic! What assurance physicians have! what effrontery! what asses for the most part! I have just finished the Gaule poetique of Marchangy (the enemy of Beranger). This book gave me hysterics.”

– Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), from a letter to George Sand (1804—1876), dated February 28, 1874, in: “The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters”, translated from the French by A.L. McKenzie

“Come for me this evening… I will be loving you until then just to stay patient. See you this evening! Oh, this evening will be everything!

I will give myself to you completely.”

– Juliette Drouet (1806—1883), from a letter to Victor Hugo (1802—1885), dated February 16, 1833, in: “My beloved Toto: letters from Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo, 1833—1882″, translated from the French by Victoria Tietze Larson

“You should not worry too much about me; this is still a very advantageous patch here on earth to be living on.”

– Werner Heisenberg (1901—1976), from a letter to Elisabeth Heisenberg (1914—1998), Hechingen, dated March 9, 1945, in: “My Dear Li. Werner and Elisabeth Heisenberg. Correspondence 1937—1946″, translated from the German by Irene Heisenberg

“A kiss Sweetestheart. – The mails are very cruel. I do hope nothing has gone wrong—

or that you are ill in any way. – All crazy ideas shoot thro one’s head!”

– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), Lake George, New York, dated July 4, 1929, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“At times I feel I have not matured at the same level with my dreams. I find myself rootless and abandoned like a stone… Without love, there is no meaning to life nor to art…”

– Mona Sa’udi (born 1945), from a letter to the editor, dated September 6, 1975, in: “Women of the Fertile Crescent: an anthology of modern poetry by Arab women”, edited by Kamal Boullata

“My Dear

I was so happy to hear you this A.M. I am just so very happy now, and I came back to bed and proceeded to write you at once.”

– Carrie Hughes (1873—1938), from a letter to Langston Hughes (1902—1967), dated August, 22, 1933, in: “My Dear Boy: Carrie Hughes’s Letters to Langston Hughes, 1926—1938”

“Sweetheart, I never could believe that you could feel that there could be anyone way down in the depth of all I am but you – ”

– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), Boston, Massachusetts, dated September 3, 1926, in: My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“… our love will never change, & we feel that & our prayers for each other continue.”

– Alexandra Feodorovna (the last Empress of Russia, 1872—1918), from a letter to Ernest Louis (Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rhine, 1868—1937), dated April, 1915

“Sometimes lying in bed is pleasant – and one sort – waited for, longed for.”

– Leoš Janáček (1854—1928), from a letter to Kamila Janáček (1891—1935), dated December 31, 1927, in: “Intimate Letters: Leoš Janáček to Kamila Janáček”, translated by John Tyrrell

“Good Night my Dear Little One – Just a gentle Good Night kiss – very tender – ”

– Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), from a letter to Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), Madison, Wisconsin, dated July 22, 1928, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“Although our books were open, we spoke more of love than of learning. There were more kisses than conferences. Our hands went more often to one another’s breasts than to our texts. If, to avoid suspicion, I sometimes struck her, my blows were the marks not of anger but of the tender affection that is sweeter than any perfume. Need I say more? In our passion we neglected no stage of love and if love could invent anything new, we added it. The less we had experienced these raptures, the more ardently we pursued them and the less our desire was quenched by them.”

– Pierre Abelard (1079—1142), from a letter to a friend. Letter 1: A Story of Calamities, in: “The Letters of Heloise and Abelard: A Translation of Their Collected Correspondence and Related Writings”

“I love to hear from you, but I realize you are busy and don’t have time to write, but you love me just the same don’t you?”

– Carrie Hughes (1873—1938), from a letter to Langston Hughes (1902—1967), dated May 13 [sic], 1933, in: “My Dear Boy: Carrie Hughes’s Letters to Langston Hughes, 1926—1938”

“I know more and more how much deeper you have gone into me even than my beginning – It is as tho I have had nothing else but the feeling of big open spaces – —My love to you dearest – I think we both understand – even tho we are both very difficult at times – I have wept a handkerchief wet over this…”

– Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), from a letter to Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), En route from Lake George, New York, to Chicago, Illinois, dated July 12, 1928, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“I have come back home very sad and discouraged with everything. I’m suffering, I’m weeping, I’m lamenting loudly and softly – to God, to you – and I would like to die once and for all, to be finished with all the misery, all the disappointments, all the pains. It’s as though my happiness has vanished with the fine days, and to expect them to come back – both it and them – would be almost madness, for as I look around myself and inside myself I find the season late for fine days and happy days.”

– Juliette Drouet (1806—1883), from a letter to Victor Hugo (1802—1885), dated February, 1933, in: “My beloved Toto: letters from Juliette Drouet to Victor Hugo, 1833—1882″, translated from the French by Victoria Tietze Larson

“You are a flower about to open and fully opened at the same time.”

– Henry Miller (1891—1980), from a letter to Brenda Venus (born 1947), dated August 2, 1978, in: “Dear, Dear Brenda: The Love Letters of Henry Miller to Brenda Venus”

“I don’t need to have you write me about Shakespeare! Write me about yourself.”

– Boris Pasternak (1890—1960),from a letter to Olga Freidenberg (1890—1955), Moscow, dated January 22, 1945, in: “The Correspondence of Boris Pasternak and Olga Freidenberg, 1910—1954″, translated from the Russian by Elliott Mossman and Margaret Wettlin

“Time itself does not ‘console,’ as people say superficially; at best it assigns things to their proper place and creates an order.”

– Rainer Maria Rilke (1875- 1926), from a letter to Countess Margot Sizzo-Noris-Crouy, dated January 6, 1923, in: “The Dark Interval. Rainer Maria Rilke. Letters on Loss, Grief and Transformation”, translated by Ulrich Baer

“I am petrified to be left alone with myself. All the beasts of my cage wake up to tear me to pieces. And I do not know how to placate them.”

– Luigi Pirandello (1867—1936), from a letter to Marta Abba (1900—1988), dated July 5, 1928, in: “Pirandello’s Love Letters to Marta Abba”, translated from the Italian by Benito Ortolani

“We must believe that we love one another a great deal, for we both had the same thought at the same time.”

– George Sand (1804—1876), from a letter to Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), Nohant, dated February 8, 1867, in: “The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters”, translated from the French by A.L. McKenzie

“…you are enjoying the rare fortune of being passionately loved…”

– Germaine de Staël (1766—1817), quoting Thecla, in a letter to O’Donnel, Coppet, dated 6 August, at midnight, 1808, in “Madame de Staël. Selected correspondence”, translated from the French by Kathleen Jameson-Cemper

“I was the more convinced that this girl would yield to me readily because I was so well aware of her knowledge and her love of literary studies. This would mean that, even when we were parted, the exchange of letters could bring us together, and since it is often possible to write more boldly than one can speak, we could always converse delightfully with one another.”

– Pierre Abelard (1079—1142), from a letter to a friend. Letter 1: A Story of Calamities, in: “The Letters of Heloise and Abelard: A Translation of Their Collected Correspondence and Related Writings”

“Once more Good Night – I would like to come with the wind & take a peep of you when you are sound asleep – & slip away again with the wind – & you would never know. – ”

– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), Lake George, New York, August 26, 1926, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“My love, I never felt our love more strongly than that evening at Les Vikings, where you gazed at me so tenderly I felt like weeping.”

– Simone de Beauvoir (1908—1986), from a letter to Jean-Paul Sartre (1905—1980), dated Tuesday, January 6, 1930, in “Letters to Sartre”, translated from the French by Quintin Hoare

“I would like to offer you only joy, to surround you with a continuous and warm felicity in exchange for all that you’ve given me in the prodigality of your love. I am afraid of being cold, selfish, and yet God only knows what is churning in me at this hour.”

– Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), from a letter to Louise Colet (1810—1876), in: “Rage and fire: a life of Louise Colet, pioneer feminist, literary star, Flaubert’s muse” by Francine du Plessix Gray

“You are not like me! You are full of compassion. There are days when I choke with wrath, I would like to drown my contemporaries in latrines, or at least deluge their cockscombs with torrents of abuse, cataracts of invectives. Why? I wonder myself.”

– Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), from a letter to George Sand (1804—1876), dated November 14, 1871, in: “The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters”, translated from the French by A.L. McKenzie

“Good Night – I do miss you – You certainly know that – don’t you feel it way down in the root of you – & I know you miss me. – Yes, I know it.”

– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), Lake George, New York, dated August 26, 1926, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“For some reason this letter is not turning out right, and I sense (and such feelings never deceive) that you are reading it with coldness and alienation.”

– Boris Pasternak (1890—1960), from a letter to Olga Freidenberg (1890—1955), Chistopol, July 18, 1942, in: “The Correspondence of Boris Pasternak and Olga Freidenberg, 1910—1954″, translated from the Russian by Elliott Mossman and Margaret Wettlin

“Your letter – tiny – tiny handwriting – lovely – purity itself – but so heartbreakingly sad.”

– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), New York City, dated February 11, 1918, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“I beg your pardon for impressing the idea that I was hurt at any remark of yours. You must excuse me for having been so unfortunate. You have never irritated me, and I never expect you to do anything that will, as I know how sweet your temper is and how much you love me.”

– Nathaniel Dawson (1829—1895), from a letter to Elodie Todd (1840—1877), Manassas Junction, dated September 2, 1861, in: “Practical Strangers. The Courtship Correspondence of Nathaniel Dawson and Elodie Todd, Sister of Mary Todd Lincoln”, edited by Stephen Berry and Angela Esco Elder

“I have not been entirely well for a week. I took a cold, I dont know how, which has singularly for me taken the form of a cough, that annoys me a little. Dont make yourself uneasy about me. If it really becomes anything serious I shall write to you everyday – if not, then my not writing everyday will be satisfactory proof so far that I am well.”

– Sally Campbell Preston McDowell (1821—1895), from a letter to John Miller (1819—1895), dated Tuesday, May 2, 1855, in: “If You Love That Lady Don’t Marry Her: The Courtship Letters of Sally Mcdowell and John Miller, 1854—1856″

“8:30 p.m. Eyes or no eyes – I don’t want to go to bed without dropping you a few lines.”

– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), Lake George, New York, dated August 26, 1926, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“I wonder if I shall love you as much as face to face as I do in this ‘letter-garb’.”

– Sally Campbell Preston McDowell (1821—1895), from a letter to John Miller (1819—1895), dated July 12, 1855, in: “If You Love That Lady Don’t Marry Her: The Courtship Letters of Sally Mcdowell and John Miller, 1854—1856″

“From me to you nothing should flow. Fly, yes!”

– Marina Tsvetaeva (1892—1941), from a letter to Rainer Maria Rilke (1875—1926), in: “Letters. Summer 1926. Boris Pasternak. Marina Tsvetaeva, Rainer maria Rilke”, translated by Margaret Wettlin, Walter Arndt, Jamey Gambrell

“Darling,

I am just waiting for you to write. But I have heard nothing. Will you please write.”

– Carrie Hughes (1873—1938), from a letter to Langston Hughes (1902—1967), New York, N.Y., dated October 29, 1928, in: “My Dear Boy: Carrie Hughes’s Letters to Langston Hughes, 1926—1938”

“Little One… I try to imagine what you are doing – what is going on in the Room and I just know I can’t – One never can – All I know is that I have a great fondness for you and your understanding my having to do this makes me feel you are again very good to me – ”

– Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), from a letter to Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), Madison, Wisconsin, dated July 22, 1928, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“I want your, your news, of you, about your days; I want to see you, to follow you, to feel myself near you!

I picture so many things, I hear your voice, I know every expression of your face, all your gestures and your movements, how you turn your eyes and how you glance as you talk to one person or another; l could tell you everything about yourself, every slightest motion of your soul, every deeply concealed fold of your thought, the whole “momentariness” of life that goes through you without the time to register even in yourself or to appear for one instant in your awareness. But you don’t tell me anything and I don’t know anything. I continue my imagining in emptiness: “will it be so?” or “will it be true?” But I don’t know where you have your breakfast, whether in the hotel or in the store or in some restaurant…

I am no longer able to see you, and you can hardly imagine how much I suffer because of it.”

– Luigi Pirandello (1867—1936), from a letter to Marta Abba (1900—1988), dated March 3, 1930, in: “Pirandello’s Love Letters to Marta Abba”, translated from the Italian by Benito Ortolani

“The writers of the dictionary are foolish enough to try to define love. It can’t be done. The way I feel defies all definition and explanation. When I say I love you, what I feel is, without you, there is nothing. Everything would be a meaningless void. I wish I knew a pretty poem or quotation to close with but I’m at a loss.”

– Mike Royko (1932—1997), from a letter to Carol Joyce Duckman (1934—1979), postmarked August 13, 1954, in: “Royko in Love: Mike’s Letters to Carol”, by Mike Royko and David Royko

“I am truly, without exception, the most ungrateful individual on the face of this earth, and fully deserve whatever torture the Inferno has in store. (I forget what particular form they take.) I’m extremely sorry I didn’t reply at once. I had an incredible amount of work & just cut out writing to anyone.”

– Iris Murdoch (1919—1999), from a letter to Frank Thompson (1918—1989), Oxford, dated early Summer, 1940, in: “Iris Murdoch, a Writer At War. Letters and Diaries, 1939—1945″

“Do you not believe that love like ours is immortal and will only be fully realized in a more beautiful existence adapted to the fine development of what here is called affection? If the world were peopled with inhabitants as nearly perfect as you are, omnipotence would not have inflicted death upon man as a means of refining him for a better existence.”

– Nathaniel Dawson (1829—1895), from a letter to Elodie Todd (1840—1877), Bolivar Heights, dated May 19, 1861, in: “Practical Strangers. The Courtship Correspondence of Nathaniel Dawson and Elodie Todd, Sister of Mary Todd Lincoln”, edited by Stephen Berry and Angela Esco Elder

“… how secret and dual my life is, how dispersed, how full of contradictions. I have been supremely happy in recent months, yet I despair when I see how impotent this inner state is to influence the outer state.”

– Boris Pasternak (1890—1960), from a letter to Olga Freidenberg (1890—1955), Moscow, dated January 7, 1953, in: “The Correspondence of Boris Pasternak and Olga Freidenberg, 1910—1954″, translated from the Russian by Elliott Mossman and Margaret Wettlin

“ – I’m all tired – all over – Tired in my head – all of me – The tired in my head is bad. – ”

– Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), from a letter to Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), Canyon, Texas, dated January 14, 1918, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“… the true truth is this: you are my creature, my creature, my creature, in which all my spirit lives with the very power of my creation, so much so that it has become your thing and you are all my life. And the true truth is that I am not old, but young, the youngest of all, in my mind as well as in my heart; in my blood, in my muscles, in my nerves… I am you, as you desire me, and if you do not want me anymore, I – by myself – I am nothing anymore, and living is no longer possible for me.”

– Luigi Pirandello (1867—1936), from a letter to Marta Abba (1900—1988), dated March 1, 1930, in: “Pirandello’s Love Letters to Marta Abba”, translated from the Italian by Benito Ortolani

“My thoughts are with you, you’re fully around me, invisible, necessary as air. You’re mine…

You’re passionate, I too; two fires – what a flame that would be!.. And we should write in blood now!!”

– Leos Janacek (1854—1928), from a letter to Kamila Stosslova (1891—1935), dated May 5, 1927, in: “Intimate Letters: Leoš Janáček to Kamila Janáček”, translated by John Tyrrell

“I keep imagining our reunion and seeing each other again, and then I am as strong as iron, I stretch up tall and say ‘And yet, despite everything, the day of our reunion will come.’ A thousand sweet loving kisses.”

– Marie Bader (1886—1942), from a letter to Ernst Löwy (1880—1943), Karlín, dated January, 28, 1942, in: “Life and Love in Nazi Prague. Letters from an Occupied City. Marie Bader”, translated by Kate Ottevang

“I assure you that there is only one pleasure: learning what one does not know, and one happiness: loving the exceptions. Therefore I love you and I embrace you tenderly.”

– George Sand (1804—1876), from a letter to Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), Nohant, dated May 9, 1867, in: “The George Sand-Gustave Flaubert Letters”, translated from the French by A.L. McKenzie

“Do not forget me, for the love of God! Remember that, from far away, I’ll be always near you with my whole soul, in the wings, to delight in your voice, to follow each gesture, each movement, each expression of yours; to laugh if you laugh, to weep if you weep. No human creature has ever attached his own life to that of another creature as I did to yours. Always remember this.”

– Luigi Pirandello (1867—1936), from a letter to Marta Abba (1900—1988), dated September 27, 1929, in: “Pirandello’s Love Letters to Marta Abba”, translated from the Italian by Benito Ortolani

“You tell me… to write you every day, and if I do not I know you will reproach me. But the very idea that you want a letter every morning will prevent me from writing me! Let me love you in my manner… Don’t force me to do anything, and I shall do everything. Understand me and don’t reproach me. If I thought you were frivolous and stupid, like other women, I would inundate you with promises, oaths… but I prefer to express less, not more, than the true feelings of my heart. A thousand kisses, everywhere, everywhere…”

– Gustave Flaubert (1821—1880), from a letter to Louise Colet (1810—1876), in: “Rage and fire: a life of Louise Colet, pioneer feminist, literary star, Flaubert’s muse” by Francine du Plessix Gray

“Absence lessens half hearted passions and increases great ones, as the wind puts out the candles and yet stirs up the fire.”

– Mike Royko (1932—1997), from a letter to Carol Joyce Duckman (1934—1979), postmarked April 22, 1954, in: “Royko in Love: Mike’s Letters to Carol”, by Mike Royko and David Royko

“We, who live here and now, are not for a moment satisfied in the time-world nor confined in it; we incessantly flow over and over to those who preceded us, to our origin, and to those who seemingly come after us.”

– Rainer Maria Rilke (1875—1926), from a letter to Witold Hulewicz, dated November 13, 1925, in: “The Dark Interval. Rainer Maria Rilke. Letters on Loss, Grief and Transformation”, translated from the German by Ulrich Baer

“I must smile – You’re sweet – all of you – outside & inside – touchable & untouchable – Above all that center about which no one knows – still does – A kiss! And more – Good Morning.”

– Alfred Stieglitz (1864—1946), from a letter to Georgia O’Keeffe (1887—1986), Lake George, New York, dated July 24, 1928, in: “My Faraway One. Selected Letters of Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Volume 1, 1915—1933″

“I behold you without clouds. I see you the way I imagined you”

– Germaine de Staël (1766—1817), from a letter to O’Donnel, Coppet, dated 12 July, 1808, in: “Madame de Staël. Selected correspondence”, translated from the French by Kathleen Jameson-Cemper