--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: real letter-writing ... is founded on a…" description: "\"real letter-writing ... is founded on a need as old and as young as humanity itself, the need that one human being has of another.\" — Agnes Repplier" image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f1d/agnes-repplier-1850_human-beings_real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need_422739.png" --- # real letter-writing ... is founded on a need as old and as… ![“real letter-writing ... is founded on a need as old and as young as humanity itself, the need that one human being has of another.” quote by Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f1d/agnes-repplier-1850_human-beings_real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need_422739.png) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f1d/agnes-repplier-1850_human-beings_real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need_422739.png) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f1d/agnes-repplier-1850_human-beings_real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need_422739.png) > “real letter-writing ... is founded on a need as old and as young as humanity itself, the need that one human being has of another.” [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. Human connection drives the desire to communicate, reflecting an ancient and timeless need for companionship and understanding. **In simple terms:** People need to write to connect. Key Takeaway Write to nurture relationships. Themes communication humanity relationships Mood reflective hopeful Type inspirational philosophical When to use this quote - personal letters - business correspondence - digital messaging - friendship building Key Concepts social need emotional expression Questions to Reflect On - How does writing strengthen bonds? - What barriers exist in modern communication? A Different Perspective Written words can be misinterpreted without tone. ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ No ratings yet [Human beings](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-beings/) [Humanity](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/humanity/) [Humans](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/humans/) [Letter writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/letter-writing/) [Nature of man](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/nature-of-man/) [Writer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writer/) [Writing](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/writing/) ## Related quotes > [Letter-writing on the part of a busy man or woman is the quintessence of generosity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/letter-writing-on-the-part-of-a-busy-man-or-woman-is-the-quintessence/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [You glance at an e-mail. You give more attention to a real letter.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/judith-martin/you-glance-at-an-e-mail-you-give-more-attention-to-a-real-letter/) [Judith Martin](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/judith-martin/) > [“None of this is real, my dear. Not this house, not this conversation, not those shoes you're wearing--which are several years out of style…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/seanan-mcguire/none-of-this-is-real-my-dear-not-this-house-not-this-conversation-not/) [Seanan McGuire](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/seanan-mcguire/) > [Why do so many ingenious theorists give fresh reasons every year for the decline of letter writing, and why do they assume, in derision…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/why-do-so-many-ingenious-theorists-give-fresh-reasons-every-year-for/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [However advanced the technology may become, life is impossible without humanity, and that's why we need a combination of science of thinking and art…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/narendra-modi/however-advanced-the-technology-may-become-life-is-impossible-without/) [Narendra Modi](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/narendra-modi/) > [The future belongs to those who have the courage to create it. We need a new humanity. We need a new expression of community.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/erwin-mcmanus/the-future-belongs-to-those-who-have-the-courage-to-create-it-we-need/) [Erwin McManus](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/erwin-mcmanus/) > [“The greatest benefit of the arrival of artificial intelligence is that AIs will help define humanity. We need AIs to tell us who we…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kevin-kelly/the-greatest-benefit-of-the-arrival-of-artificial-intelligence-is/) [Kevin Kelly](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/kevin-kelly/) > [Humanity has this need to hear stories because they connect us with other people, they teach us about our own feelings. We feel less…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/isabel-allende/humanity-has-this-need-to-hear-stories-because-they-connect-us-with/) [Isabel Allende](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/isabel-allende/) > [Machine intelligence is the last invention that humanity will ever need to make.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/nick-bostrom/machine-intelligence-is-the-last-invention-that-humanity-will-ever/) [Nick Bostrom](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/nick-bostrom/) > [If we want to discover the full potential in our humanity, we need to celebrate those heartbreaking strengths and those glorious disabilities we all…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/aimee-mullins/if-we-want-to-discover-the-full-potential-in-our-humanity-we-need-to/) [Aimee Mullins](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/aimee-mullins/) > [I think if you're convinced that you're evil, and that God has had to rescue you, then the best you can be is grateful.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-shelby-spong/i-think-if-you-re-convinced-that-you-re-evil-and-that-god-has-had-to/) [John Shelby Spong](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-shelby-spong/) > [I like writing letters and receiving letters. It's a shame that we've lost the art of letter-writing and saving correspondence. I mourn that.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/elizabeth-mcgovern/i-like-writing-letters-and-receiving-letters-it-s-a-shame-that-we-ve/) [Elizabeth McGovern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/elizabeth-mcgovern/) > [“All my life I have written letters - to our mother, our relatives, a wide circle of friends and acquaintance, to my husband, to…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/delia-sherman/all-my-life-i-have-written-letters-to-our-mother-our-relatives-a-wide/) [Delia Sherman](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/delia-sherman/) > [We lay aside letters never to read them again, and at last we destroy them out discretion, and so disappears the most immediate breath…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/we-lay-aside-letters-never-to-read-them-again-and-at-last-we-destroy/) [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/johann-wolfgang-von-goethe/) > [“The nature of the epistolary genre was revealed to me: a form of writing devoted to another person. Novels, poems, and so on, were…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/amelie-nothomb/the-nature-of-the-epistolary-genre-was-revealed-to-me-a-form-of/) [Amélie Nothomb](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/amelie-nothomb/) ## More by Agnes Repplier > [The dog is guided by kindly instinct to the man or woman whose heart is open to his advances. The cat often leaves the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/the-dog-is-guided-by-kindly-instinct-to-the-man-or-woman-whose-heart/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [Letter-writing on the part of a busy man or woman is the quintessence of generosity.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/letter-writing-on-the-part-of-a-busy-man-or-woman-is-the-quintessence/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [To have given pleasure to one human being is a recollection that sweetens life.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/to-have-given-pleasure-to-one-human-being-is-a-recollection-that/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [Believers in political faith-healing enjoy a supreme immunity from doubt.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/believers-in-political-faith-healing-enjoy-a-supreme-immunity-from/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [Philadelphians are every whit as mediocre as their neighbors, but they seldom encourage each other in mediocrity by giving it a more agreeable name.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/philadelphians-are-every-whit-as-mediocre-as-their-neighbors-but-they/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [When the milk of human kindness turns sour, it is a singularly unpalatable draught.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/when-the-milk-of-human-kindness-turns-sour-it-is-a-singularly/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [Conversation in its happiest development is a link, equally exquisite and adequate, between mind and mind, a system by which men approach one another…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/conversation-in-its-happiest-development-is-a-link-equally-exquisite/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [What monstrous absurdities and paradoxes have resisted whole batteries of serious arguments, and then crumbled swiftly into dust before the ringing death-knell of a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/what-monstrous-absurdities-and-paradoxes-have-resisted-whole/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [the labors of the true critic are more essential to the author, even, than to the reader.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/the-labors-of-the-true-critic-are-more-essential-to-the-author-even/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/he-is-your-friend-your-partner-your-defender-your-dog-you-are-his/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [Our dogs will love and admire the meanest of us, and feed our colossal vanity with their uncritical homage.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/our-dogs-will-love-and-admire-the-meanest-of-us-and-feed-our-colossal/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [Erudition, like a bloodhound, is a charming thing when held firmly in leash, but it is not so attractive when turned loose upon a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/erudition-like-a-bloodhound-is-a-charming-thing-when-held-firmly-in/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [There was no escape from the letter-writer who, a hundred or a hundred and twenty-five years ago, captured a coveted correspondent. It would have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/there-was-no-escape-from-the-letter-writer-who-a-hundred-or-a-hundred/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [Sleep sweetly in the fields of asphodel, and waken, as of old, to stretch thy languid length, and purr thy soft contentment to the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/sleep-sweetly-in-the-fields-of-asphodel-and-waken-as-of-old-to/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) > [In the stress of modern life, how little room is left for that most comfortable vanity that whispers in our ears that failures are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/in-the-stress-of-modern-life-how-little-room-is-left-for-that-most/) [Agnes Repplier](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) [Explore all 203 Agnes Repplier quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/) ## More Human beings quotes > [Houses are like the human beings that inhabit them.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/victor-hugo/houses-are-like-the-human-beings-that-inhabit-them/) [Victor Hugo](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/victor-hugo/) > [Humans are, as Sartre put it, 'condemned to be free'. To insist that science, or God, objectively defines moral values is to abandon our…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/kenan-malik/humans-are-as-sartre-put-it-condemned-to-be-free-to-insist-that/) Kenan Malik > [Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And when that drive is liberated, people achieve…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/daniel-h-pink/human-beings-have-an-innate-inner-drive-to-be-autonomous-self/) [Daniel H. Pink](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/daniel-h-pink/) > [Gambling has held human beings in thrall for millennia. It has been engaged in everywhere, from the dregs of society to the most respectable…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/peter-l-bernstein/gambling-has-held-human-beings-in-thrall-for-millennia-it-has-been/) [Peter L. Bernstein](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/peter-l-bernstein/) > [Here's the reality. The image of a white Jesus has been used to justify enslavement, conquest, colonialism, the genocide of indigenous peoples. There are…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tim-wise/here-s-the-reality-the-image-of-a-white-jesus-has-been-used-to/) [Tim Wise](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tim-wise/) > [What is music? Music is language. A human being wants to express ideas in this language, but not ideas that can be translated into…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anton-webern/what-is-music-music-is-language-a-human-being-wants-to-express-ideas/) [Anton Webern](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anton-webern/) > [What we're supposed to do as actors is be able to portray real human beings and emotions. And if you grow up in this…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/emily-browning/what-we-re-supposed-to-do-as-actors-is-be-able-to-portray-real-human/) [Emily Browning](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/emily-browning/) > [I think everybody, or the great majority of human beings, have this aspiration to become other: to live a different identity, at least for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/mario-vargas-llosa/i-think-everybody-or-the-great-majority-of-human-beings-have-this/) [Mario Vargas Llosa](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/mario-vargas-llosa/) > [“Is there any holy beings like human beings?”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/lailah-gifty-akita/is-there-any-holy-beings-like-human-beings/) [Lailah Gifty Akita](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/lailah-gifty-akita/) > [A human being can only absorb a small amount of the mystical kundalini, you can be exposed again and again to it, but it…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/frederick-lenz/a-human-being-can-only-absorb-a-small-amount-of-the-mystical/) [Frederick Lenz](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/frederick-lenz/) > [I recognize I am essentially a failed human being in the sense that I can't possibly live up to the expectations of an Almighty.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/george-w-bush/i-recognize-i-am-essentially-a-failed-human-being-in-the-sense-that-i/) [George W. Bush](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/george-w-bush/) > [A composer knows that music is written by human beings for human beings and that music is a continuation of life, not something separated…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/hanns-eisler/a-composer-knows-that-music-is-written-by-human-beings-for-human/) Hanns Eisler > [“According to this model, human beings are, at least in one aspect, sensation-receiving machines; and although our receptory apparatus is competent to select and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/cruce-stark/according-to-this-model-human-beings-are-at-least-in-one-aspect/) Cruce Stark > [For our purposes as human beings, the mind is the center of everything.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/marilynne-robinson/for-our-purposes-as-human-beings-the-mind-is-the-center-of-everything/) [Marilynne Robinson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/marilynne-robinson/) > [Human beings seek community, and permanent openness is hard to sustain.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ross-douthat/human-beings-seek-community-and-permanent-openness-is-hard-to-sustain/) [Ross Douthat](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ross-douthat/) [Browse all 6,948 Human beings quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/human-beings/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "real letter-writing ... is founded on a need as old and as young as humanity itself, the need that one human being has of another.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Agnes Repplier" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need-as-old-and-as-young-as/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Human beings" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need-as-old-and-as-young-as/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f1d/agnes-repplier-1850_human-beings_real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need_422739.png", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f1d/agnes-repplier-1850_human-beings_real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need_422739.png", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f1d/agnes-repplier-1850_human-beings_real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need_422739.png", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“real letter-writing ... is founded on a need as old and as young as humanity itself, the need that one human…” — Agnes Repplier", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Agnes Repplier", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/agnes-repplier/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "real letter-writing ... is founded on...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need-as-old-and-as-young-as/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/agnes-repplier/real-letter-writing-is-founded-on-a-need-as-old-and-as-young-as/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```