A friend is a present you give to yourself.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Tell me who’s your friend and I’ll tell you who you are.
—Russian Proverb
Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (c.250–184 BCE) Roman Comic Playwright
A lifetime of happiness? No man alive could bear it
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
You may poke a man’s fire after you’ve known him for seven years.
—English Proverb
A puppy plays with every pup he meets, but an old dog has few associates.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
And what a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
It is well, when one is judging a friend, to remember that he is judging you with the same godlike and superior impartiality.
—Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) British Novelist, Playwright, Critic
A friend should bear a friend’s infirmities, but Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Those who forgets their friends to follow those of a higher status are truly snobs.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon the sand.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American Poet, Journalist
Your friends will know you better in the first minute they meet you than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.
—Richard Bach (b.1936) American Novelist, Aviator
No one is rich enough to do without a neighbor.
—Danish Proverb
Your friend is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
Join the company of lions rather than assume the lead among foxes.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
A friend you have to buy; enemies you get for nothing.
—Yiddish Proverb
Let your best be for your friend…
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
A Friend is a treasure. More precious than Gold, For love shared is priceless And never grows old.
—Anonymous
A man is known by the company he avoids.
—Muriel Strode (1875–1964) American Author, Businesswoman
A day for toil, an hour for sport, but for a friend is life too short.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
You cannot be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
The wise man does not permit himself to set up even in his own mind any comparisons of his friends. His friendship is capable of going to extremes with many people, evoked as it is by many qualities.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
If you have no friends to share or rejoice in your success in life—if you cannot look back to those to whom you owe gratitude, or forward to those to whom you ought to afford protection, still it is no less incumbent on you to move steadily in the path of duty; for your active exertions are due not only to society; but in humble gratitude to the Being who made you a member of it, with powers to serve yourself and others.
—Walter Scott (1771–1832) Scottish Novelist, Poet, Playwright, Lawyer
Your friend is your needs answered.
—Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese-born American Philosopher, Poet, Painter, Theologian, Sculptor
The world is round so that friendship may encircle it.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) French Jesuit Philosopher, Paleontologist
And say my glory was I had such friends.
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939) Irish Poet, Dramatist
Never deceive a friend.
—Hipparchus (c.180–125 BCE) Greek Astronomer, Mathematician
Separate from the pleasure of your company, I don’t much care if I never see another mountain in my life.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet