Letter 12: Before you did write me a few words: now not even a few. Your brevity will soon become silence. Return to your old ways, and do not let me have to scold you for your laconic behaviour.
Basil of Caesarea→Olympius|c. 358 AD|basil caesarea
You used to write me a few words. Now not even that. Keep this up and your brevity will turn into silence altogether. Get back to your old habits — don't make me lecture you about going quiet on me. I'll take even a short note as proof that you still care. Just write.
ST. BASIL OF CAESAREA
To Olympius.
Before you did write me a few words: now not even a few. Your brevity will soon become silence. Return to your old ways, and do not let me have to scold you for your laconic behaviour. But I shall be glad even of a little letter in token of your great love. Only write to me.
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Source. Translated by Blomfield Jackson. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 8. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1895.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3202012.htm>.
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You used to write me a few words. Now not even that. Keep this up and your brevity will turn into silence altogether. Get back to your old habits — don't make me lecture you about going quiet on me. I'll take even a short note as proof that you still care. Just write.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.