If letters did not exist, what dark depressions would come over one! When one has been worrying about something and wants to tell a certain person about it, what a relief it is to put it all down in a letter! Still greater is one's joy when a reply arrives. At that moment a letter really seems like an elixir of life.
Sei ShonagonA man who has nothing in particular to recommend him discusses all sorts of subjects at random as if he knew everything.
Sei Shonagon