[Friendship] redoubleth joys and cutteth griefs in halves. For there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to a friend, but he grieveth the less.
FRANCIS BACON
Friendships last when each friend thinks he has a slight superiority over the other.
BALZAC
It is one of the severest tests of friendship to tell your friend of his faults....To speak painful truth through loving words - that is friendship.
HENRY WARD BEECHER
Friendless, adj. Having no favors to bestow. Destitute of fortune. Addicted to utterance of truth and common sense.
AMBROSE BIERCE
Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of one another.
EUSTACE BUDGELL
Agreement in likes and dislikes - this, and this only, is what constitutes true friendship.
CATALINE
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
Treat your friends as you do your pictures, and place them in their best light.
JENNIE JEROME CHURCHILL
My foul-weather friend.
WINSTON CHURCHILL
To bear each other's burdens, never to ask each other for anything inconsistent with virtue and rectitude, and not only to serve and love but also to respect each other.
CICERO
A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true [criteria] of the attachment of his friends.
GEORGE WASHINGTON
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.
To give and receive advice-the former with freedom and yet without bitterness, the latter with patience and without irritation-is peculiarly appropriate to genuine friendship.
CICERO
What a delight it is to make friends with someone you have despised!
COLETTE
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
CONFUCIUS
Leon Delbecque (in great distress): General, all of my friends say you are deserting us. They want me to get you to change your Algerian policy. What should I do? De Gaulle (snapping back): Change your friends.
CHARLES de GAULLE
Similarity of outlook creates friendship.
DEMOCRITUS
You got a lotta nerve To say you are my friend When I was down You just stood there grinning
You got a lotta nerve To say you gotta helping hand to lend You just want to be on The side that's winning.
BOB DYLAN "Positively 4th Street" (song)
There are very few honest friends - the demand is not particularly great.
MARIE von EBNER-ESCHENBACH
Best friend, my wellspring in the wilderness!
GEORGE ELIOT
Friendship quotations, like friends themselves, are all unique and precious in their own way.
