When you realize that suffering and discomfort are the call to inquiry, you may actually begin to look forward to uncomfortable feelings. You may even experience them as friends coming to show you what you have not yet investigated thoroughly enough.
—Byron Katie (b.1942) American Speaker, Author
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
Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests, an interchange of services given and received; it is, in sum, simply a business from which those involved propose to derive a steady profit for their own self-love.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
We know our friends by their defects rather than their merits.
—W. Somerset Maugham (1874–1965) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life.
—Pythagoras (570–495 BCE) Greek Philosopher
Camerado, I give you my hand, I give you my love more precious than money, I give you myself before preaching or law; Will you give me yourself?
—Walt Whitman (1819–92) American Poet, Essayist, Journalist
But please remember, especially in these times of group-think and the right-on chorus, that no person is your friend (or kin) who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow and be perceived as fully blossomed as you were intended.
—Alice Walker (b.1944) American Novelist, Activist
A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Your friendship is your needs answered.
—Danish Proverb
You can always tell a real friend; when you’ve made a fool of yourself he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job.
—Laurence J. Peter (1919–90) Canadian-Born American Author
Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Without friends the world is but a wilderness. There is no man that imparteth his joys to his friends, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his grieves to his friend, but he grieveth the less.
—Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English Philosopher
Who ceases to be a friend never was one.
—Greek Proverb
Friends make pretence of following to the grave but before one is in it, their minds are turned and making the best of their way back to life and living people and things they understand.
—Robert Frost (1874–1963) American Poet
Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and just be my friend.
—Albert Camus (1913–60) Algerian-born French Philosopher, Dramatist, Novelist
Human beings are born into this little span of life of which the best thing is its friendship and intimacies, and soon their places will know them no more, and yet they leave their friendships and intimacies with no cultivation, to grow as they will by the roadside, expecting them to keep by force of inertia.
—William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician
Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.
—Confucius (551–479 BCE) Chinese Philosopher
A mistress never is nor can be a friend. While you agree, you are lovers; and when it is over, anything but friends.
—Lord Byron (George Gordon Byron) (1788–1824) English Romantic Poet
When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
—George Washington (1732–99) American Head of State, Military Leader
Our friends interpret the world and ourselves to us, if we take them tenderly and truly.
—Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American Teacher, Writer, Philosopher
A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.
—Arnold Glasow (1905–98) American Businessman
Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.
—Sicilian Proverb
As the yellow gold is tried in fire, so the faith of friendship must be seen in adversity.
—Ovid (Publius Ovidius Naso) (c.43 BCE–c.18 CE) Roman Poet
Friendship is a pretty full-time occupation if you really are friendly with somebody. You can’t have too many friends because then you’re just not really friends.
—Truman Capote (1924–84) American Novelist
I am treating you as my friend, asking you to share my present minuses in the hope I can ask you to share my future pluses.
—Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand-born British Author
False friends are like our shadow, keeping close to us while we walk in the sunshine, but leaving us the instant we cross into the shade.
—Christian Nestell Bovee (1820–1904) American Writer, Aphorist
Friendship is one mind in two bodies.
—Mencius (c.371–c.289 BCE) Chinese Philosopher, Sage
A sympathetic friend can be quite as dear as a brother.
—Homer (751–651 BCE) Ancient Greek Poet
Leave a Reply