“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make friends of them?” ——Abraham Lincoln
“I’d rather have two good friends, than 500,000 admirers.” ——E. E. Cummings
“True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in their worth and choice.” ——Samuel Johnson
“The happiest moments my heart knows are those in which it is pouring forth its affections to a few esteemed characters.” ——Thomas Jefferson
“The making of friends, who are real friends, is the best token we have of a man’s success in life.” ——Edward Everett Hale
“Tell me what company thou keepst, and I’ll tell thee what thou art.” ——Miguel de Cervantes
“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
“The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?” ——Henry David Thoreau
“Friends, like flowers, give pleasure just by being.” ——Author Unknown
“Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter.” ——James Fenimore Cooper
“A friend loves at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.” ——Proverbs 17:17, The Bible
“A true friend is someone that knows the song of your soul, and sings it back to you when you have forgotten the words.” ——Author Unknown
“What a wretched lot of old shrivelled creatures we shall be by-and-by. Never mind — the uglier we get in the eyes of others, the lovelier we shall be to each other; that has always been my firm faith about friendship.” ——George Eliot
“My friend is one who takes me for what I am.” ——Henry David Thoreau
“The greatest happiness in life is the conviction that we are loved, loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.” ——Author Unknown
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” ——Albert Schweitzer
“Lay down this rule of friendship: neither ask nor consent to do what is wrong. The plea, ‘for friendship’s sake,’ is a discreditable one, and should not be admitted for a moment. We should ask from friends and do for friends only what is good.” ——Cicero
“Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses.” ——Proverbs 27:6, The Bible
“When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance.” ——Anatole Broyard
“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.” ——Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person! Having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all out just as they are, chaff and grain together. Certain that a faithful hand will take them and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” ——George Eliot
“Don’t flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.” ——Oliver Wendell Holmes
“Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you say. Best friends listen to what you don’t say.” ——Author Unknown
“True friendship comes when silence between two people is comfortable.” ——Dave Tyson Gentry
“Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking.” ——George Eliot
“I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with the roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost-work, but the solidest thing we know.” ——Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends.” ——Mary Catherwood
“Good friends must not always be together;
It is the feeling of oneness when distant
That proves a lasting friendship.” ——Susan P. Schultz
“Impart as much as you can of your spiritual being to those who are on the road with you, and accept as something precious what comes back to you from them.” ——Albert Schweitzer
“It costs to be a friend or to have a friend. It not only costs time, affection, patience, love, but sometimes a man must even lay down his life for his friends. There is no true friendship without self-abnegation, self-sacrifice.” ——Author Unknown
“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.” ——Kahlil Gibran
“True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.” ——Charles Caleb Colton
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather is one of those things that give value to survival.” ——C. S. Lewis
“We love those who can lead us to a place we will never reach without them.” ——Norman Mailer
“Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend.” ——Albert Camus
“Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success.” ——Oscar Wilde
“Friendship without self interest is one of the rare and beautiful things in life.” ——James Francis Byrnes
“The friendships that last are those wherein each friend respects the other’s dignity to the point of not really wanting anything from him.” ——Cyril Connolly
“Friendship with oneself is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.” ——Eleanor Roosevelt
“No one person can possibly combine all the elements supposed to make up what everyone means by friendship.” ——Francis Marion Crawford
“When you’re looking for a friend don’t look for perfection, just look for friendship.” ——Author Unknown
“Hold a true friend with both your hands.” ——Nigerian Proverb
“The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.” ——Abraham Lincoln
“A needle’s eye is not too narrow for two friends, nor is the world wide enough for two enemies.” ——Author Unknown