Letters share life. Seneca, Epistles 4.40.1

Seneca thanks Lucilius for writing letters to him, taking a moment to appreciate the significance he finds in reading over something his friend wrote on purpose, with him in mind. There is something special about letters written deliberately to you, by someone who cares.

Quod frequenter mihi scribis gratias ago; nam quo uno modo potes te mihi ostendis. Numquam epistulam tuam accipio ut non protinus una simus. Si imagines nobis amicorum absentium iucundae sunt, quae memoriam renovant et desiderium absentiae falso atque inani solacio levant, quanto iucundiores sunt litterae, quae vera amici absentis vestigia, veras notas afferunt? Nam quod in conspectu dulcissimum est, id amici manus epistulae impressa praestat, agnoscere.

I give you thanks for writing to me regularly. Your letters show me what you can do, providing a window into the world of possibility that is your life. I never receive an epistle from you without feeling immediately that we are once more together. If pictures of absent friends are pleasant to us, renewing our memory and relieving our desire for society we lack with a solace that is false and empty, how much sweeter are letters, which bring us true signs of distant friends, marks laid down deliberately for our attention? What a wonderful thing it is to recognize the imprint of a friend's hand on a letter—one of the sweetest sights that I have seen.