A friend you have to buy; enemies you get for nothing.
—Yiddish Proverb
Every murderer is probably somebody’s old friend.
—Agatha Christie (1890–1976) British Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Playwright
The world is round so that friendship may encircle it.
—Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) French Jesuit Philosopher, Paleontologist
One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
A friend is someone with whom you dare to be yourself.
—Frank Hall Crane
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 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
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
Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.
—E. W. Howe (1853–1937) American Novelist, Editor
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, Painter
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
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
I hate it in friends when they come too late to help.
—Euripides (480–406 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
Who seeks a faultless friend remains friendless.
—Turkish Proverb
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
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 Head of State, Military Leader
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
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
Good fellowship and friendship are lasting, rational and manly pleasures.
—William Wycherley (1640–1715) English Dramatist
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
Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
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
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
Love demands infinitely less than friendship.
—George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American Drama Critic, Editor
Many a time from a bad beginning great friendships have sprung up.
—Terence Ancient Roman Playwright
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
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
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
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
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
Friendship is the privilege of private men; for wretched greatness knows no blessing so substantial.
—Nahum Tate
Friendships begun in this world will be taken up again, never to be broken off.
—Francis de Sales (1567–1622) French Catholic Saint
Never do a wrong thing to make a friend or to keep one.
—Robert E. Lee (1807–70) Confederate General during American Civil War
A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your successes.
—Doug Larson
A man is known by the company he avoids.
—Muriel Strode (1875–1964) American Author, Businesswoman
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
Your friend is who man who knows all about you, and still likes you.
—Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American Writer, Publisher, Artist, Philosopher
My friends, there are no friends.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
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
You cannot be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality.
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American Head of State
Those who forgets their friends to follow those of a higher status are truly snobs.
—William Makepeace Thackeray (1811–63) English Novelist
A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth.
—Charles Darwin (1809–82) British Naturalist, Scientist
An acquaintance that begins with a compliment is sure to develop into a real friendship.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet
Friends are proved by adversity.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer