Excellent man! Since it was my honest intention to reconcile I believed I could strike out freely right and left! Now you show me where real reconciliation is to be found—where there is no possibility of wounding!
Might I suppose that a truly noble man, conscious of his own virtue, would really [not] feel wounded by me and my opinions, and could I, upon this supposition alone, feel it within the bounds of decorum to approach you, as I have recently done, with my letters, it is yet for no other reason than my own weakness that I now confess to you that I never really knew you and your worth till I received from you the reassurance which Edward Devrient has just brought me. One wish remains in the depths of my soul—were all men like you!
I hope this hasty word may serve to show you what the effect has been on me of this news from you! [...]
P.S. This time I have forgotten "Excellency" and everything of the kind! Forgive me—I could not write otherwise!
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 1, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 142