“Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves.”

— Oliver Goldsmith

Act I.
The Good-Natured Man (1768)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Friendship is a disinterested commerce between equals; love, an abject intercourse between tyrants and slaves." by Oliver Goldsmith?

Oliver Goldsmith 134

Irish physician and writer 1728–1774

Related quotes

“Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse.”

James Joyce book Dubliners

"A Painful Case"
Source: Dubliners (1914)
Context: One of his sentences, written two months after his last interview with Mrs. Sinico, read: Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse.

“Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.”

Oscar Wilde Lady Windermere's Fan

Lord Darlington, Act II
Lady Windermere's Fan (1892)

“Do you know what the difference is between Friendship and Love? Friendship is the photograph, Love is the oil painting.”

Frank Delaney (1942–2017) Irish writer and journalist

Source: The Matchmaker of Kenmare

“Love is not dependency or sex, but is friendship, and, therefore, love can't exist between two males, between a male and a female or between two females, one or both of whom is a mindless, insecure, pandering male; like conversation it can exist only between two secure, free-wheeling, independent, groovy female females, as friendship is based on”

Valerie Solanas (1936–1988) American radical feminist and writer. Attempted to assassinate Andy Warhol.

respect, not contempt.
Source: SCUM MANIFESTO (1967), p. 10 ("respect, not contempt." (not bracketed in original) not certain in original due to truncation of bottom of photocopy page but consistent with it).