Have no friends not equal to yourself.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
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
A friend is a present you give to yourself.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
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
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
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
Everybody needs one essential friend.
—William Glasser (1925–2013) American Psychiatrist, Author, Speaker
Join the company of lions rather than assume the lead among foxes.
—The Talmud Sacred Text of the Jewish Faith
Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
You cannot be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks.
—Jerome (347–420) Greek Priest, Apologist, Saint
The good fellow to everyone is a good friend to no one.
—Hebrew Proverb
A man never likes you so well as when he leaves your company liking himself.
—Anonymous
But just as delicate fare does not stop you from craving for saveloys, so tried and exquisite friendship does not take away your taste for something new and dubious.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
All things being equal, people will do business with a friend; all things being unequal, people will still do business with a friend.
—Mark McCormack (1930–2003) American Lawyer, Sports Agent
Who seeks a faultless friend remains friendless.
—Turkish Proverb
I want my friend to miss me as long as I miss him.
—Augustine of Hippo (354–430) Roman-African Christian Philosopher
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 Writer, Aviator
A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your successes.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) English Naturalist
Love Him, and keep Him for thy Friend, who, when all go away, will not forsake thee, nor suffer thee to perish at the last.
—Thomas a Kempis (1379–1471) German Religious Priest, Writer
We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over.
—James Boswell (1740–95) Scottish Biographer, Diarist
The real test of friendship is: Can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy together those moments of life that are utterly simple? They are the moments people looks back on at the end of life and number as their most sacred experiences.
—Eugene Kennedy (1928–2015) American Psychologist, Educator
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
These can never be true friends: Hope, dice, a prostitute, a robber, a cheat, a goldsmith, a monkey, a doctor, a distiller.
—Indian Proverb
My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
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
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
Tell me who’s your friend and I’ll tell you who you are.
—Russian Proverb
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