“He’s a friend indeed who proves himself a friend in need.”

—  Plautus , Epidicus

Epidicus, Act I, sc. 2, line 9.
Epidicus
Context: The man that comforts a desponding friend with words alone, does nothing. He’s a friend indeed who proves himself a friend in need.

Original

Nihil agit, qui diffidentem verbis solatus suis. Is est amicus, qui in re dubia te juvat, ubi re est opus.

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 "He’s a friend indeed who proves himself a friend in need." by Plautus?
Plautus photo
Plautus 54
Roman comic playwright of the Old Latin period -254–-184 BC

Related quotes

William Cowper photo

“The man that hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves, by thumping on your back,
His sense of your great merit,
Is such a friend that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed
To pardon or to bear it.”

William Cowper (1731–1800) (1731–1800) English poet and hymnodist

On Friendship.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

John Heywood photo

“Prove your friend ere you have need, but in deed
A friend is never known till a man have need.”

John Heywood (1497–1580) English writer known for plays, poems and a collection of proverbs

Part I, chapter 11.
Proverbs (1546)

Marcus Annaeus Seneca photo

“He that is a friend to himself, is a friend to all mankind.”

Marcus Annaeus Seneca (-54–39 BC) Roman scholar

Derived from Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium; Epistle VI of Seneca the Younger:
"I shall tell you what pleased me today in the writings of Hecato; it is these words: 'What progress, you ask, have I made? I have begun to be a friend to myself.' That was indeed a great benefit; such a person can never be alone. You may be sure that such a man is a friend to all mankind." ["Interim quoniam diurnam tibi mercedulam debeo, quid me hodie apud Hecatonem delectaverit dicam. 'Quaeris' inquit 'quid profecerim? amicus esse mihi coepi.' Multum profecit: numquam erit solus. Scito esse hunc amicum omnibus."]
Misattributed

William Shakespeare photo
Boris Johnson photo

“With friends like these, who needs Yemenis?”

Boris Johnson (1964) British politician, historian and journalist

At a summit about the civil war in Yemen, Financial Times, 19 September 2017 https://www.ft.com/content/4060a7e0-9972-11e7-a652-cde3f882dd7b
Attributed

“A friend in need is a friend to be avoided.”

Source: Drenai series, Legend, Pt 1: Against the Horde, Ch. 1

Thomas Fuller (writer) photo

“6103. A Friend in Need
Is a Friend in Deed.”

Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual

Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)

Stephen King photo

“No good friends, no bad friends; only people you want, need to be with. People who build their houses in your heart.”

Source: It (1986), Ch. 16 : Eddie's Bad Break, §8
Context: Maybe, he thought, there aren't any such things as good friends or bad friends — maybe there are just friends, people who stand by you when you're hurt and who help you feel not so lonely. Maybe they're always worth being scared for, and hoping for, and living for. Maybe worth dying for, too, if that's what has to be. No good friends. No bad friends. Only people you want, need to be with; people who build their houses in your heart.

“He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, while he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.”

Ali (601–661) cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic prophet Muhammad

As quoted in "Considerations By the Way" in Conduct of Life by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Variant translation: Believe me, a thousand friends suffice thee not; In a single enemy thou hast more than enough

Baruch Ashlag photo

Related topics