Interpersonal Relationships

"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."

"Friendship makes prosperity more shining and lessens adversity by dividing and sharing it."

"Non nobis solum nati sumus ortusque nostri partem patria vindicat, partem amici."

"A young man needs friends to serve as guides and counselors, confidantes and role-models. The mature man is capable of meaningful undertakings only when his actions are undergirded by the support of others. And the elderly seek strength in their time of weakness and, ultimately, in their struggle for survival, in companionship and affection. Even if there is love at first sight, there is no friendship that does not demand time and space to reach its perfection. The ancient proverb states, and rightly so, that two friends cannot truly know each other without having first shared a bag of salt…Outside the family circle, friendship evolves into good will. In the workplace this allows us to manage without despotism, and to follow orders without resentment. In society we will learn to intervene without violence, but also without servility. And we will be able to look beyond the geographical borders of our own country, our customs, our race, our religious beliefs, and our political ideology to see that humanity is an attribute of all mankind."

"Love is only chatter, Friends are all that matter."

"There is no man so friendless but what he can find a friend sincere enough to tell him disagreeable truths."

"Health is the greatest gift, contentment is the greatest wealth, a trusted friend is the best relative, Nibbana is the greatest bliss."

"Now with my friend I desire not to share or participate, but to engross his sorrows, that, by making them mine own, I may more easily discuss them; for in mine own reason, and within myself, I can command that which I cannot entreat without myself, and within the circle of another."

"I have loved my friends as I do virtue, my soul, my God."

"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."

"Nicht aus dem schweren Boden der Erde,"

"FRIENDSHIP, n. A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul."

"FRIENDSHIP, n. A ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but none in foul."

"BEFRIEND, v.t. To make an ingrate."

"That is almost the definition of any friendship that is worthwhile — that we don't care a damn how you behave yourself."

"You do retain the song we set, And how it rises, trips and scans? You keep the sacred memory yet, Republicans? Republicans?"

"From quiet homes and first beginning, Out to the undiscovered ends, There's nothing worth the wear of winning, But laughter and the love of friends."

"For no one, in our long decline, So dusty, spiteful and divided, Had quite such pleasant friends as mine, Or loved them half as much as I did."

"No friend's a friend till [he shall] prove a friend."

"I get by with a little help from my friends."

"Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things, — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read."

"Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years."

"I’ve always said there’s no hope without endeavor. Hope has no meaning unless we are prepared to work to realize our hopes and dreams but in order to that we do need to have friends. We need those who believe in us. Friends are those who believe in us and who want to help us whatever it is that we are trying to achieve."

"You are the oldest democracy of the New World. We are the youngest democracy of the Old World. You, the great democracy of the New World, should take due note of your new sister democracy and should conceive its import. We are friends now, and we will be much closer friends in the future."

"The best friend is he that, when he wishes a person's good, wishes it for that person's own sake."

"When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition."

"Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods."

"Piety requires us to honor truth above our friends."

"Misfortune shows those who are not really friends."

"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies."

"Your friends are three and your enemies arc (also) three. Your friends are: your friend, your friend's friend and your enemy's enemy. And your enemies are: your enemy, your friend's enemy and your enemy's friend."

"A stranger is he who has no friend."

"If you intend to cut yourself off from a friend leave some scope for him from your side by which he may resume friendship if it occurs to him some day."

"A friend is he whose absence also proves the friendship."

"He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere."

"Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary."

"The friendships of the world are oft Confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasure; Ours has severest virtue for its basis, And such a friendship ends not but with life."