A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) English Naturalist
A friend you have to buy; enemies you get for nothing.
—Yiddish Proverb
An acquaintance that begins with a compliment is sure to develop into a real friendship.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
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
In a bad marriage, friends are the invisible glue. If we have enough friends, we may go on for years, intending to leave, talking about leaving –instead of actually getting up and leaving.
—Erica Jong (b.1942) American Novelist, Feminist
An open foe may prove a curse, but a pretended friend is worse.
—John Gay (1685–1732) English Poet, Dramatist
Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
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
A friend is a present you give to yourself.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
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
The sacrifices of friendship were beautiful in her eyes as long as she was not asked to make them.
—Saki (Hector Hugh Munro) (1870–1916) British Short Story Writer, Satirist, Historian
Love demands infinitely less than friendship.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
The love of our private friends is the only preparatory exercise for the love of all men.
—John Henry Newman (1801–90) British Theologian, Poet
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
Friendships are fragile things and require as much care in handling as any other fragile and precious thing.
—Randolph Bourne (1886–1918) American Writer, Scholar
And what a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised.
—Colette (1873–1954) French Novelist, Performer
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
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
Friendships begun in this world will be taken up again, never to be broken off.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
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
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
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
Who seeks a faultless friend remains friendless.
—Turkish Proverb
We create our fate every day … most of the ills we suffer from are directly traceable to our own behavior.
—Henry Miller (1891–1980) American Novelist
It may be a cold, clammy thing to say, but those that treat friendship the same as any other selfishness seem to get the most out of it.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
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
The friend of my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity.
—Ulysses S. Grant (1822–85) American Civil War General, Head of State
A friend is someone with whom you dare to be yourself.
—Frank Hall Crane (1873–1948) American Stage and Film Actor, Director
Do not have evil-doers for friends, do not have low people for friends: have virtuous people for friends, have for friends the best of men.
—The Dhammapada Buddhist Anthology of Verses
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
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
A friend is long sought, hardly found, and with difficulty kept.
—Jerome (347–420) Greek Priest, Apologist, Saint
Good fellowship and friendship are lasting, rational and manly pleasures.
—William Wycherley (1640–1715) English Dramatist
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
Friendship should be a private pleasure, not a public boast. I loathe those braggarts who are forever trying to invest themselves with importance by calling important people by their first names in or out of print. Such first-naming for effect makes me cringe.
—John Mason Brown (1900–69) American Columnist, Journalist, Author
Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family —but to a solitary and an exile his friends are everything.
—Willa Cather (1873–1947) American Novelist, Writer
The world is round so that friendship may encircle it.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) French Jesuit Philosopher, Paleontologist
You cannot be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
A man is known by the company he avoids.
—Muriel Strode (1875–1964) American Author, Businesswoman
Many a time from a bad beginning great friendships have sprung up.
—Terence (c.195–159 BCE) Roman Comic Dramatist
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
‘Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and have her nonsense respected.
—Charles Lamb (1775–1834) British Essayist, Poet
Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
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
I hate it in friends when they come too late to help.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
A good friend is worth pursuing… but why would a good friend be running away?
—Ashleigh Brilliant (b.1933) British Cartoonist, Author
Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your successes.
—Doug Larson (1926–2017) American Columnist
I can’t forgive my friends for dying; I don’t find these vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
My friends, there are no friends.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
Those who forgets their friends to follow those of a higher status are truly snobs.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
Your friend is who man who knows all about you, and still likes you.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one.
—Robert E. Lee (1807–70) Confederate General during American Civil War
I keep my friends as misers do their treasure, because, of all the things granted us by wisdom, none is greater or better than friendship.
—Pietro Aretino (1492–1556) Italian Author, Playwright, Poet, Satirist
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
Friends are proved by adversity.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
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