Friendship quotes
A collection of quotes on the topic of life, relationship, friendship, for friend.
Best friendship quotes
“I have learned that to be with those I like is enough”
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Variant: A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies.
Variant: Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
Source: The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, p. 188; also reported in various sources as:
Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
A true friend is one soul in two bodies.
Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies.
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.
“Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.”
Jean De La Fontaine (1621–1695) French poet, fabulist and writer.
“The friendship that can cease has never been real.”
Amicitia quae desinere potest vera numquam fuit.
Jerome (345–420) Catholic saint and Doctor of the Church
Letter 3
Letters
“You are what you believe yourself to be.”
Paulo Coelho book The Witch of Portobello
Source: The Witch of Portobello (2007), p. 152.
Context: You are what you believe yourself to be.
Don't be like those people who believe in "positive thinking" and tell themselves that they're loved and strong and capable. You don't need to do that because you know it already. And when you doubt it — which happens, I think, quite often at this stage of evolution — do as I suggested. Instead of trying to prove that you're better than you think, just laugh. Laugh at your worries and insecurities. View your anxieties with humor. It will be difficult at first, but you'll gradually get used to it. Now go back and meet all those people who think you know everything. Convince yourself that they're right, because we all know everything, it's merely a question of believing.
Believe.
“True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks.”
Jerome (345–420) Catholic saint and Doctor of the Church
“Love is blind. Friendship closes its eyes.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“The language of Friendship is not words, but meanings.”
Henry David Thoreau A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Source: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Friendship quotes
“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.”
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican scholastic philosopher of the Roman Catholic Church
Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist
Variant: Everyone wants 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.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1960s, The Trumpet of Conscience (1967)
Variant: In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
Paramahansa Yogananda (1893–1952) Yogi, a guru of Kriya Yoga and founder of Self-Realization Fellowship
“The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for.”
Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician
“Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.”
Maya Angelou book Letter to My Daughter
Variant: Be a rainbow in somebody else's cloud.
Source: Letter to My Daughter
“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.”
Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors
Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People
Variant: You can make more friends in two months by being interested in them, than in two years by making them interested in you.
Source: How to Win Friends and Influence People (1936), p. 52 (in 1998 edition)
Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
Variant: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.
Variant: The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen, nor touched... but are felt in the heart.
“To the world you may be one person; but to one person you may be the world.”
Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books
“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
Variant: Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”
Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) American politician, 28th president of the United States (in office from 1913 to 1921)
Red Cross Speech http://books.google.com/books?id=f6l-dsvnjhEC&pg=PA406&dq=%22Friendship+is+the+only+cement%22, New York (18 May 1918) <br class="br">1910s
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“There is another world, but it is in this one.”
Paul Éluard (1895–1952) French poet
Il y a assurément un autre monde, mais il est dans celui-ci...
Œuvres complètes, vol. 1, Gallimard, 1968.
“To love is to will the good of the other.”
Thomas Aquinas book Summa Theologica
II-II, q. 26, art. 6
Summa Theologica (1265–1274)
“It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.”
Epicurus (-341–-269 BC) ancient Greek philosopher
“Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.”
William Shakespeare book The Passionate Pilgrim
Source: The Passionate Pilgrim
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
“We were together. I forget the rest.”
Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist
Cosimo de' Medici (1389–1464) First ruler of the Medici political dynasty
Attributed to Cosimo de' Medici, Duke of Florence, in Apothegms by Francis Bacon, (1624) No. 206
“Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
“Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is by far the best ending for one.”
Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray
Variant: Laughter is not a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is the best ending for one.
Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray
“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
As quoted in The Beacon Book of Quotations by Women (1992) by Rosalie Maggio, p. 130
“True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
“A good writer possesses not only his own spirit but also the spirit of his friends.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist
“There's not a word yet, for old friends who've just met.”
Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer
Source: Favorite Songs from Jim Henson's Muppets
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
As quoted in The Power of Respect : Benefit from the Most Forgotten Element of Success (2009) by Deborah Norville, p. 65
“Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.”
Aristotle book Nicomachean Ethics
Book VIII, 1155a.5
Nicomachean Ethics
Source: The Nicomachean Ethics
“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.”
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) English essayist
Source: The Life, Letters and Writings of Charles Lamb
“Stay is a charming word in a friend's vocabulary.”
Amos Bronson Alcott (1799–1888) American teacher and writer
Misattributed
Source: Concord Days
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist
“True friends are like diamonds – bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style.”
Nicole Richie (1981) American television personality, musician, actress, and author
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
His response when "accused of treating his opponents with too much courtesy and kindness, and when it was pointed out to him that his whole duty was to destroy them", as quoted in More New Testament Words (1958) by William Barclay; either this anecdote or Lincoln's reply may have been adapted from a reply attributed to Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund:<br>:* Some courtiers reproached the Emperor Sigismond that, instead of destroying his conquered foes, he admitted them to favour. “Do I not,” replied the illustrious monarch, “effectually destroy my enemies, when I make them my friends?”<br>::* "Daily Facts" in The Family Magazine Vol. IV (1837), p. 123 http://books.google.de/books?id=aW0EAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA123&dq=destroy; also quoted as simply in "Do I not effectually destroy my enemies, in making them my friends?" in The Sociable Story-teller (1846) <br class="br">Disputed
“Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali polymath
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
Variant: Sometimes our light goes out but is blown again into flame by an encounter with another human being. Each of us owes the deepest thanks to those who have rekindled this inner light.
“Never contract friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.”
Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher
“I will not let you go into the unknown alone.”
Bram Stoker (1847–1912) Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 Gothic novel Dracula
“You are stronger than you seem,
Braver than you believe,
and smarter than you think you are.”
A.A. Milne book Winnie-the-Pooh
Variant: You are braver than you believe,
Stronger than you seem,
And smarter than you think(:
Source: Winnie-the-Pooh
“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.”
Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright
Actually by the Chinese philosopher, educator and popular lecturer Dr. Tehyi Hsieh, Chinese epigrams inside out, and proverbs, 1948.
Misattributed
Variant: Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
“We see the world not as it is, but as we are.”
Lois McMaster Bujold The Sharing Knife
Dag Redwing hickory Bluefield
Passage (Vol. III in Tetralogy) (2008), p. 163
The Sharing Knife, Passage (Vol. III in Tetralogy) (2008)
“To live is to not know that one is living”
Florbela Espanca (1894–1930) Portuguese poet
Diary (20 April, 1930), quoted in Afinado desconcerto (2002), p. 262
Context: Sometimes I start looking at the mirror and examining myself, feature by feature: eyes, mouth, shape of the forehead, eyelids curve, the face line... And this vulgar and hideous-looking, grotesque and miserable amalgam, would it know how to do verses? Oh, no! There is something else … but what? After all, why think? To live is to not know that one is living... Why don't I forget that I am living... to live?
“Love demands infinitely less than friendship.”
George Jean Nathan (1882–1958) American drama critic and magazine editor
“When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands.”
Maria Shriver (1955) journalist and author from the United States
“Friendship is essentially a partnership.”
Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy
“There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met.”
W.B. Yeats (1865–1939) Irish poet and playwright
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.”
Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist
“We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”
Albert Schweitzer (1875–1965) French-German physician, theologian, musician and philosopher
“Friends… they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams.”
Henry David Thoreau A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Source: A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Toni Morrison book Beloved
Variant: She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.
Source: Beloved
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Source: Emerson in His Journals
“Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship.”
Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist
“He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.”
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer
No. 401
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
Source: Selected Essays, 1778-1830
“My best friend is one who brings out the best in me”
Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist
Actually due to Harris Weinstock: "My best friend is the man who can bring out of me my best, and your best friend is the one who tends to bring out the best in you" (May 1914) Attributed to Henry Ford as early as 1948.
Misattributed
“Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend.”
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet
Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer
Source: Firefly Lane
“Truth springs from argument amongst friends.”
David Hume (1711–1776) Scottish philosopher, economist, and historian
Misattributed
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author
As quoted in Katherine Mansfield : A Biography (1953) by Antony Alpers, p. 266
“Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.”
Sarah Dessen (1970) American writer
Variant: This world is an awful/ugly place not to have a best friend.
Source: Someone Like You (1998)
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Lois Wyse (1926–2007) American advertising executive
“A single rose can be my garden; a single friend, my world.”
Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet
Variant: We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest;
And deal full many a thoughtless blow,
To those who love us best.
“When a man's best friend is his dog, that dog has a problem.”
Edward Abbey (1927–1989) American author and essayist
“The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Friendship
Variant: The only way to have a friend is to be one.
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.”
William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist
“It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend.”
William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist
Source: 1800s, Jerusalem The Emanation of The Giant Albion (c. 1803–1820), Ch. 4, plate 91, line 1
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
March 1937
Diary entries (1914 - 1974)
Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934