"It is nothing against the validity of a friendship that the parties to it have not a mutual resemblance. There must be a basis of agreement, but the structure reared upon it may contain a thousand disparities."

"Sometimes, friendship may change the world."

"Chi si trova senz’ amici, e come un corpo senz’ anima."

"One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and more symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies."

"Blessed are they who have the gift of making friends, for it is one of God's best gifts. It involves many things, but, above all, the power of going out of one's self and appreciating whatever is noble and loving in another."

"Your friend is that man who knows all about you, and still likes you."

"Never explain — your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyhow."

"The finest friendships are between those who can do without each other."

"The difficulty is not so much to die for a friend, as to find a friend worth dying for."

"Friends . . old friends. . ."

"Friendship is often outgrown; and his former child's clothes will no more fit a man than some of his former friendships."

"A friend who offers help without asking for explanations is a treasure beyond price."

"Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies."

"If displeased with any man, do all you can to prevent his seeing it, for otherwise he will become estranged. And occasions often arise when he might and would have served you had you not lost him by showing your dislike. Of this I have had experience to my own profit. For once and again I have felt ill-disposed towards some one who not being aware of my hostility has afterwards helped me when I needed help and proved my good friend."

"Hazer de los amigos maestros, penetrando el útil del aprender con el gusto del conversar."

"He cast off his friends, as a huntsman his pack; For he knew, when he pleas'd, he could whistle them back."

"I love everything that's old, — old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine."

"Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside. For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace."

"Do not befriend an evil man and no evil will overtake you."

"A friendship that can be ended didn't ever start."

"'Tis great Confidence in a Friend to tell him your Faults, greater to tell him his."

"Thou canst not joke an Enemy into a Friend; but thou may'st a Friend into an Enemy."

"There are three faithful friends: an old wife, an old dog, and ready money."

"Of all the means which wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is friendship."

"The wise man … needs no bribe or feast or palace to draw friends to him. He is supremely fair. He angles with himself and with no other bait."

"The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it."

"The only way to have a good friend is to be one."

"Our friends early appear to us as representatives of certain ideas, which they never pass or exceed. They stand on the brink of the ocean of thought and power, but they never take a single step that would bring them there."

"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him, I may think aloud."

"Friend more divine than all divinities."

"Best friend, my well-spring in the wilderness!"

"But a companion and a friend shall be turned to an enemy."

"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.""

"Es gibt wenig aufrichtige Freunde. Die Nachfrage ist auch gering."

"To insure the probable continuance of friendship there must be a parity of station and fortune, and some kindred pursuit."

"Other dogs bite only their enemies, whereas I bite also my friends in order to save them."

"We ought to esteem him alone an agreeable and good-natured man, who, in his daily intercourse with others, behaves in such a manner as friends usually behave to each other. For as a person of that rustic character appears, wherever he comes, like a mere stranger: so, on the contrary, a polite man, wherever he goes, seems as easy as if he were amongst his intimate friends and acquaintances."

"Le sort fait les parents, le choix fait les amis."

"Though I have always made it my practice to be pleasant to everybody, I have not once actually experienced friendship. I have only the most painful recollections of my various acquaintances with the exception of such companions in pleasure as Horiki. I have frantically played the clown in order to disentangle myself from these painful relationships, only to wear myself out as a result. Even now it comes as a shock if by chance I notice in the street a face resembling someone I know however slightly, and I am at once seized by a shivering violent enough to make me dizzy. I know that I am liked by other people, but I seem to be deficient in the faculty to love others. (I should add that I have very strong doubts as to whether even human beings really possess this faculty.) It was hardly to be expected that someone like myself could ever develop any close friends—besides, I lacked even the ability to pay visits. The front door of another person’s house terrified me more than the gate of Inferno in the Divine Comedy, and I am not exaggerating when I say that I really felt I could detect within the door the presence of a horrible dragon-like monster writhing there with a dank, raw smell."

"I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts."

"Friends are like the autumn; every year they leaving."

"The blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely. Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away."

"She that asks Her dear five hundred friends, contemns them all, And hates their coming."

"I would not enter on my list of friends (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm."

"When the daylight's gone, & you're on your own And you need a friend, just to be around I will comfort you, I will take your hand And I'll pull you through, I will understand And you know thatI'll be at your side There's no need to worry Together, we'll survive Through the haste & hurry I'll be at your side, if you feel like you're alone And you've nowhere to turn I'll be at your side If life's standing still, and your soul's confused And you cannot find what road to choose [...] I will turn around And you know that I 'll be at your side"

"Keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

"Ah, child. What are we without friends? Just severed heads rolling across the sands."

"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost."

"Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like; Friendship is a sheltering tree; Oh the joys that came down shower-like, Of friendship, love, and liberty, Ere I was old!"

"Amicus est tamquam alter idem."