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Happy Valentine’s Day! This is a reprise of a favorite post of mine, from Valentine’s Day in 2010—quotes from great love letters in history. Got one to add? Click Comments and share!

In 1797, a British publisher printed The Young Man’s Valentine Writer, which
suggested sentimental verses for wooing the ladies. Need similar inspiration this
Valentine’s Day? Here are a few swoon-inducing quotes from love letters of the past,
and where you can read the rest.

Revolutionary War Gen. Nathanael Greene to his wife, Catharine

“There is not a day or night, nay not an hour, but I wish to fold you
to my heart.”

I couldn’t find the full letter online, but you can read more about the
correspondence of this couple and their contemporaries in Founding Mothers: The
Women Who Raised Our Nation by Cokie Roberts.

Poet Elizabeth
Barrett to Robert Browning, Jan. 10, 1846

“It seems to me, to myself, that no man was ever before to any woman what
you are to me.”

Samual
Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain) to Olivia Langdon, Dec. 31, 1868, transcribed
at the Mark
Twain Project Online

“The Old Year is passing. … It found me careless
of the here & the [hereafter]—it leaves me with faith in the one & hope for
the [other. It] found [me. my ] heart scorched, bitter, barren, loveless—& leaves
it filled with softening, humanizing, elevating love for the dearest girl on earth,
Livy—& I, the homeless then, have on this last day of the [die dying] year, a
home that is [pre priceless], a refuge from all the cares & ills of life, in that
warm heart of yours, & am supremely happy! And so with grateful benediction I
give [Godspeed] to this good Old Year that is passing away. If I forget all else it
has done for me I shall still remember that it gave me your love, Livy, …”

Civil
War soldier Sullivan Ballou to his wife Sarah, July 14, 1861, a week before
he was killed in the Battle of Bull Run (this letter was made famous in Ken Burns’
documentary “The Civil War“)

“… something whispers to me—perhaps it is the wafted prayer of my little
Edgar, that I shall return to my loved ones unharmed. If I do not my dear Sarah, never
forget how much I love you, and when my last breath escapes me on the battle field,
it will whisper your name. … How gladly would I wash out with my tears every little
spot upon your happiness …”

Harry
Truman to his wife, Bess, May 7, 1933

“I still believe that my sweetheart is the ideal woman…”