It’s Friday. Well done—you’ve made it. To ease you into the weekend, some letters that have grabbed my attention over the past fortnight, trimmed of any fat. I am particularly fond of Benjamin Franklin’s postscript about the elbow. Enjoy.

To be a spy, you need first to know what you think about the world, whom you would like to help, whom to frustrate. This, I am afraid, takes time.

Also, you have to decide how much you are prepared to do by dishonest means. You are very young to decide to be dishonest. My guess is, you want excitement and a great cause. But I think and hope that if you ever find the great cause, the excitement will come naturally from the pleasure of serving it, & then you won't need to deceive anybody, you will have found what you are looking for. You will be more than a spy then. You will be a good, happy man.

John le Carré
Letter to a 10-year-old aspiring spy
31st January 1988

From A Private Spy: The Letters of John Le Carré

P. S. It is wicked, Madam, to forsake and forget your friends.

George Eliot
Letter to Mrs. Pattison
23rd April 1871

From Life and Letters: Volume 2

Modern life gets less and less worth living, is my solemn conclusion. Wherever you go there are always people.

William Maxwell
Letter to Sylvia Townsend Warner
1st March 1954

I must have a job—“a small job,” you say. First of all, what job? I defy you to find me one, to specify in what field, or what it would be like. Frankly, and without deluding yourself, is there a single one that I am capable of filling? You add: “One that wouldn’t take up much of your time and wouldn’t prevent you from doing other things.” There’s the delusion! That’s what I told myself when I began law, which nearly brought about my death from suppressed rage. When one does something, one must do it wholly and well. Those bastard existences where you sell suet all day and write poetry at night are made for mediocre minds—like those horses equally good for saddle and carriage—the worst kind, that can neither jump a ditch nor pull a plow.

Gustave Flaubert
Letter to his mother
23rd February 1850

From The Letters of Gustave Flaubert: 1830-1857

Go for it girl. ‘Nothing to fear but fear itself’ is such an old saying but if it helps you take a flying leap and if it’s the only thing that happens, you will have the lasting, lifelong satisfaction of having made a leap. That you have the courage of your convictions and the strength within yourself to do anything, will be your core and your future can be enjoyed even when things get tough. They will get tough and they will get easy and when you look back at those times, the rough ones will often be the ones you remember best.

Debbie Harry
Letter to her 16-year-old self
2009

From Dear Me: A Letter to My Sixteen-Year-Old Self

P. S. To confirm still more your piety and gratitude to Divine Providence, reflect upon the situation which it has given to the elbow. You see in animals, who are intended to drink the waters that flow upon the earth, that if they have long legs, they have also a long neck, so that they can get at their drink without kneeling down. But man, who was destined to drink wine, is framed in a manner that he may raise the glass to his mouth. If the elbow had been placed nearer the hand, the part in advance would have been too short to bring the glass up to the mouth; and if it had been nearer the shoulder, that part would have been so long that when it attempted to carry the wine to the mouth it would have overshot the mark, and gone beyond the head; thus, either way, we should have been in the case of Tantalus. But from the actual situation of the elbow, we are enabled to drink at our ease, the glass going directly to the mouth. Let us, then, with glass in hand, adore this benevolent wisdom; — let us adore and drink!

Benjamin Franklin
Letter to the Abbé André Morellet
July 1779

From The Works of Benjamin Franklin: Volume 7

I think zips have a wonderful time. Up and down all their lives, in the grooves that are made for them.

Janet Frame
Letter to William Theophilus Brown
August 1970

Always acknowledge a fault frankly. This will throw those in authority off their guard & give you opportunity to commit more.

Mark Twain
Letter to an unknown recipient
July 1877

From The Mark Twain Project

The worst thing about a mental breakdown is that someone changes. It is somehow like a nightmare to see someone change in front of your eyes, to become a stranger & not be able, with just your love, to make them that familiar person again.

Anne Sexton
Letter to Fred Morgan
May 1960

From Anne Sexton: A Self-Portrait in Letters

Ways to support Letters of Note (if you’re able!):

Buy a Print | Buy a Book | Become a Paying Subscriber | Make a Donation

Or, just spread the word. Thank you!