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
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
Two friends—two bodies with one soul inspired.
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
Nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (c.250–184 BCE) Roman Comic Playwright
Being taken for granted can be a compliment. It means that you’ve become a comfortable, trusted element in another person’s life.
—Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) American Psychologist, Advice Columnist
Tell me who’s your friend and I’ll tell you who you are.
—Russian Proverb
I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar.
—Robert Brault
Friendship is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
In America every woman has her set of girl-friends; some are cousins, the rest are gained at school. These form a permanent committee who sit on each other’s affairs, who “come out” together, marry and divorce together, and who end as those groups of bustling, heartless well-informed club-women who govern society. Against them the Couple of Ehepaar is helpless and Man in their eyes but a biological interlude.
—Cyril Connolly (1903–74) British Literary Critic, Writer
A friend once wrote: Give me your faith, not your doubts.
—Anonymous
You can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
—Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American Self-Help Author
The man that hails you Tom or Jack, and proves by thumps upon your back how he esteems your merit, is such a friend, that one had need be very much his friend indeed to pardon or to bear it.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Friendship is an arrangement by which we undertake to exchange small favors for big ones.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
No one is rich enough to do without a neighbor.
—Danish Proverb
If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.
—Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American Author
There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first … when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.
—Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Indian Hindu Mystic, Religious Leader, Philosopher, Teacher
Who finds a faithful friend, finds a treasure.
—Hebrew Proverb
A man is known by the company he avoids.
—Muriel Strode (1875–1964) American Author, Businesswoman
You may poke a man’s fire after you’ve known him for seven years.
—English Proverb
Ones oldest friend is the best.
—Plautus (Titus Maccius Plautus) (c.250–184 BCE) Roman Comic Playwright
Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
A faithful friend is a strong defense: and he that hath found such an one hath found a treasure
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
Friendship is the privilege of private men; for wretched greatness knows no blessing so substantial.
—Nahum Tate (1652–1715) Irish Poet, Dramatist
A true friend is somebody who can make us do what we can.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.
—Epicurus (c.341–270 BCE) Greek Philosopher
Love is only chatter, friends are all that matter.
—Gelett Burgess (1866–1951) American Humorist, Art Critic
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
Friendship makes prosperity brighter, while it lightens adversity by sharing its grieves and anxieties.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
Friendship is almost always the union of a part of one mind with a part of another; people are friends in spots.
—George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American Poet, Philosopher
It’s important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to the friendship that we are not.
—Mignon McLaughlin (1913–83) American Journalist, Author
Old friends are the great blessings of one’s later years. Half a word conveys one’s meaning. They have a memory of the same events, have the same mode of thinking. I have young relations that may grow upon me, for my nature is affectionate, but can they grow [To Be] old friends?
—Hugh Walpole (1884–1941) English Novelist, Short Story Writer, Dramatist
A friend that you have to buy won’t be worth what you pay for him, no matter what that may be.
—George D. Prentice (1802–70) American Journalist, Editor
Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.
—Thomas Aquinas (1225–74) Italian Catholic Priest, Philosopher, Theologian
An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
A good friend is worth pursuing… but why would a good friend be running away?
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
I shot an arrow into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For so swiftly it flew, the sight Could not follow it in its flight. I breathed a song into the air, It fell to earth, I knew not where; For, who has sight so keen and strong That it can follow the flight of song? Long, long afterward, in an oak I found the arrow, still unbroken; And the song, from beginning to end, I found again in the heart of a friend.
—Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–82) American Poet, Educator, Academic
Good fellowship and friendship are lasting, rational and manly pleasures.
—William Wycherley (c.1640–1716) English Dramatist
Love is like the wild-rose briar;
Friendship is like the holly-tree.
The holly is dark when the rose briar blooms,
But which will bloom most constantly?
—Emily Bronte (1818–48) English Novelist, Poet
The good fellow to everyone is a good friend to no one.
—Hebrew Proverb
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
You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what’s a life, anyway? We’re born, we live a little while, we die. A spider’s life can’t help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone’s life can stand a little of that.
—E. B. White (1985–99) American Essayist, Humorist
Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
Friends show their love in times of trouble…
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
And though thou notest from thy safe recess old friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air love them for what they are; nor love them less, because to thee they are not what they were.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English Poet, Literary Critic, Philosopher
My father always used to say that when you die, if you’ve got five real friends, then you’ve had a great life.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
Old friends pass away, new friends appear. It is just like the days. An old day passes, a new day arrives. The important thing is to make it meaningful: a meaningful friend – or a meaningful day.
—The 14th Dalai Lama (b.1935) Tibetan Buddhist Religious Leader, Civil Rights Leader, Philosopher, Author
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
From quiet homes and first beginning,
Out to the undiscovered ends,
There’s nothing worth the winning,
But laughter and the love of friends.
—Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) British Historian, Poet, Critic