Friendship

"Friendship ... receives its real sustenance from an equality that, to proceed without a limp, must have its two limbs equal."

"Of two friends, one is always the slave of the other, although frequently neither acknowledges the fact to himself."

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."

"A good relationship has a pattern like a dance and is built on some of the same rules. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern, intricate but gay and swift and free, like a country dance of Mozart's. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and freeze the movement, to check the endlessly changing beauty of its unfolding. There is no place here for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand; only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back — it does not matter which. Because they know they are partners moving to the same rhythm, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it. The joy of such a pattern is not only the joy of creation or the joy of participation, it is also the joy of living in the moment. Lightness of touch and living in the moment are intertwined. One cannot dance well unless one is completely in time with the music, not leaning back to the last step or pressing forward to the next one, but poised directly on the present step as it comes. Perfect poise on the beat is what gives good dancing its sense of ease, of timelessness, of the eternal."

"Come back! ye friendships long departed! That like o'erflowing streamlets started, And now are dwindled, one by one, To stony channels in the sun! Come back! ye friends, whose lives are ended, Come back, with all that light attended, Which seemed to darken and decay When ye arose and went away!"

"O friend! O best of friends! Thy absence more Than the impending night darkens the landscape o'er!"

"You will forgive me, I hope, for the sake of the friendship between us, Which is too true and too sacred to be so easily broken!"

"Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all who offer you friendship Let me be ever the first, the truest, the nearest and dearest!"

"Friendship was salvation, in this fragile world the only thing left that was not fragile. I promise you one can be drunk on friendship as well as on love."

"“I sometimes think that ‘friend’ is just a word I use for all the people I haven't murdered yet.”"

"I say that every prince must desire to be considered merciful and not cruel. He must, however, take care not to misuse this mercifulness. … A prince, therefore, must not mind incurring the charge of cruelty for the purpose of keeping his subjects united and confident; for, with a very few examples, he will be more merciful than those who, from excess of tenderness, allow disorders to arise, from whence spring murders and rapine; for these as a rule injure the whole community, while the executions carried out by the prince injure only one individual. And of all princes, it is impossible for a new prince to escape the name of cruel, new states being always full of dangers. … Nevertheless, he must be cautious in believing and acting, and must not inspire fear of his own accord, and must proceed in a temperate manner with prudence and humanity, so that too much confidence does not render him incautious, and too much diffidence does not render him intolerant. From this arises the question whether it is better to be loved more than feared, or feared more than loved. The reply is, that one ought to be both feared and loved, but as it is difficult for the two to go together, it is much safer to be feared than loved, if one of the two has to be wanting. For it may be said of men in general that they are ungrateful, voluble, dissemblers, anxious to avoid danger, and covetous of gain ; as long as you benefit them, they are entirely yours; they offer you their blood, their goods, their life, and their children, as I have before said, when the necessity is remote; but when it approaches, they revolt. And the prince who has relied solely on their words, without making other preparations, is ruined, for the friendship which is gained by purchase and not through grandeur and nobility of spirit is merited but is not secured, and at times is not to be had. And men have less scruple in offending one who makes himself loved than one who makes himself feared; for love is held by a chain of obligation which, men being selfish, is broken whenever it serves their purpose; but fear is maintained by a dread of punishment which never fails."

"Used to have friends, now I've got enemies. Used to keep them close, now they're dead to me."

"What find you better or more honourable than age? Take the preheminence of it in everything, — in an old friend, in old wine, in an old pedigree."

"I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles."

"Multiplex workplace friendships—those in which a personal, affective relationship coincides with a business relationship, namely, with coworkers within one’s organization—are a widespread organizational phenomenon (Ingram & Zou, 2008). Indeed, a recent Gallup study determined that 30% of employees report having a best friend at work (Rath, 2006), and studies show that a sizeable number of employees describe their coworkers as both colleagues and friends (e.g., Gersick, Bartunek, & Dutton, 2000; Lonkila, 1998). Importantly, multiplex workplace friendships have implications for key employee and organizational outcomes through the provision of moral and material support, work and nonwork advice, and quality information exchanges (Kram & Isabella, 1985; Rawlins, 1992; Sias, 2005; Sias & Cahill, 1998; Winstead, Derlega, Montgomery, & Pilkington, 1995). For instance, employees who report having friends at work have higher levels of productivity, retention, and job satisfaction, and are seven times more likely to be engaged in their work than their “friendless” counterparts (Rath, 2006)."

"Multiplex workplace friendships are exhausting because they create feelings of responsibility and obligation, and because they require investments of attention and energy toward their maintenance. Thus, although there are positive effects of multiplex workplace friendships on job performance, they should be offset somewhat by the effect of exhaustion, which reflects reduced energy and attention that could otherwise be applied to core job performance‐related activities (Greenhaus & Beutell, 1985; LePine, Podsakoff, & LePine, 2005)."

"Further, we expect individuals with larger multiplex workplace friendship networks will perform effectively because emotional support provides a mechanism to minimize distress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984). Emotional support is a form of support that is not related to work tasks themselves; rather, it is a “backstage resource” that allows employees to indirectly manage their work demands (Lazega & Pattison, 1999). More specifically, rather than being a source of work‐related communication, emotional support comprises communication regarding good things at work, bad things at work, and nonwork topics (Beehr, Jex, Stacy, & Murray, 2000), and having access to an outlet that allows the discussion of non work‐related topics and concerns fulfills socio emotional needs (Cobb, 1976; Cohen & Wills, 1985). Thus, emotional distress can be effectively managed with emotional support, decreasing the saliency of emotional distractions and, ultimately, allowing employees the opportunity to address work tasks. Along these lines, both AbuAlRub (2004) and Beehr et al. (2000) found a positive association between emotional support and job performance. Taken together, we theorize that access to emotional support will decrease attention paid to emotional distractions and increase productive work time, which will positively impact job performance."

"The ubiquity of multiplex workplace friendships warrants a deeper investigation of their effects on individuals’ performance at work. Indeed, McEvily and colleagues (2014) argue that “the more we attempt to disentangle formal [interaction] and informal [interaction] in an effort to understand their unique effects, the less we learn about how they actually operate” (p. 333) and call for investigations “where multiplexity of interactions is not just a possibility, but rather is an essential and defining feature” (p. 335) of theory and research. Here, we address this issue by exploring how and why multiplex workplace friendships uniquely influence performance."

"Feelings are contagious. “Each happy friend a person has increases that person’s probability of being happy by 9 percent and each unhappy friend decreases it by 7 percent,” says Nicholas A. Christakis, a co-author of “Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives.” Males with depressed roommates may end up feeling a bit blue themselves, according to Daniel Eisenberg, an assistant professor of public health at the University of Michigan who recently led a survey of 1,600 freshmen at two universities — a public one in the Midwest and a private one in the Northeast — on the issue. He found no such carryover for female students. This mood contagion seems to occur when the student keeps his feelings bottled up, Dr. Eisenberg says. And it’s only a mild case; roommates typically don’t develop their friends’ more serious conditions. “It’s not like you catch a mental-health cold,” he says. “People are resilient. They have a lot of coping strategies.”"

"If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you."

"True friendship is an identity of souls rarely to be found in this world."

"A real friendship should not fade as time passes, and should not weaken because of space separation."

"A more appropriate adjective for measuring the degree of a friendship should be “good” – how good, rather than “close” – how close. A good friend is not necessarily close; a close friend is not necessarily good."

"Mitfreude, nicht Mitleiden, macht den Freund."

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving much advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a gentle and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares."

"But remember! when it comes to friends, it's not how much time you spend with them, just how you spend it!"

""I'd rather starve with friends than dine alone." – Keith Patrick, 2025"

"We were at the age when a friend's conversation seems like oneself talking, when one shares a life in common the way I still think, bachelor though I am, some married couples are able to live."

"Love is rarer than genius itself. And friendship is rarer than love."

"Al amigo todo, al enemigo ni justicia."

"Although many scholars and practitioners have assumed that workplace friendships lead to desirable organizational outcomes, a growing body of research suggests important complexities and downsides associated with workplace friendships. This suggests a need to better understand how and when workplace friendships may lead to harmful outcomes, especially in light of organizational and technological shifts that are changing the way employees connect. Drawing on theories of close relationships, social exchange, and boundary management, we present a theoretical framework that highlights how the four defining features of friendship (informality, voluntariness, communal norms, and socio-emotional goals) are in tension with four fundamental elements of organizational life (formal roles, involuntary constraints, exchange norms, and instrumental goals). We also highlight how mutual self-disclosure and perceived similarity develop and deepen friendships but also lead to downsides for individuals, groups, and organizations. We articulate how specific features of a focal friendship clique (e.g., closeness, maturity, and status of members) may amplify or buffer negative aspects and how social media affect friendship formation and tensions. Our theoretical framework should inform new theory and research on positive relationships at work, boundary management of professional and personal identities, and how changes to work and technology affect workplace relationships."

"For all are friends in heaven, all faithful friends; And many friendships in the days of time Begun, are lasting here, and growing still."

"Friends given by God in mercy and in love; My counsellors, my comforters, and guides; My joy in grief, my second bliss in joy; Companions of my young desires; in doubt My oracles; my wings in high pursuit. Oh! I remember, and will ne'er forget Our meeting spots, our chosen sacred hours; Our burning words, that utter'd all the soul, Our faces beaming with unearthly love;— Sorrow with sorrow sighing, hope with hope Exulting, heart embracing heart entire."

"What ill-starr'd rage Divides a friendship long confirm'd by age?"

"Trust not yourself; but your defects to know, Make use of ev'ry friend—and ev'ry foe."

"Ah, friend! to dazzle let the vain design; To raise the thought and touch the heart be thine."

"Our triumphs seem hollow unless we have friends to share them, and our failures are made bearable by their understanding."

"I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire."

"“You are my friend,” said the alien, nothing about his voice out of the ordinary. “And from all that is possible, I wish you the best.”"

"Although organizational research on workplace friendships is well established, it has been criticized for its predominately postpositivistic outlook, which largely focuses on how workplace friendships can be linked to improving organizational outcomes such as efficiency and performance. As a consequence, other aspects of the lived experiences of work and friendship are obscured, in particular how these friendships are important in their own right and how they function as social and personal relationships."

"A friend in need is a friend indeed."

"Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet."

"The ending inevitably matches the beginning: the person who starts being friends with you because it pays him will similarly cease to be friends with you because it pays him."

"A true friend can be a blood or legal relation. They can be in the same clique or neighborhood or workplace. They can belong to the same racial, cultural, religious, or national group. But a true “friend” asks the right questions about category itself, and thereby transcends it. A true friend has the conversation."

"Keep thy friend Under thy own life's key."

"We still have slept together, Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together; And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans, Still we went coupled and inseparable."

"Most friendship is feigning."

"Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel; But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade."

"my friend He was quite a dear, but very naughty. He would tell the filthiest jokes right up until the cameras started rolling, so one had to compose oneself before the scene started. He had originally been a dentist which always amused me because he had the worst teeth!"