“You have to know what you want to get it.”
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays
“You have to know what you want to get it.”
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays
“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face.”
Maya Angelou book Letter to My Daughter
Source: Letter to My Daughter
“In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.”
John Churton Collins (1848–1908) British literary critic
Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer
Illusions : The Adventures of a Reluctant Messiah (1977)
“I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all.”
Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood
Source: Norwegian Wood
“The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend.”
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
“That was what a best friend did: hold up a mirror and show you your heart.”
Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer
Source: Firefly Lane
“A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand.”
Les Brown (1945) American politician
“Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.”
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, activist, and leader in the American Civil Rights Movement
1950s, Loving Your Enemies (Christmas 1957)
Context: A third reason why we should love our enemies is that love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend. We never get rid of an enemy by meeting hate with hate; we get rid of an enemy by getting rid of enmity. By its very nature, love creates and builds up. Love transforms with redemptive power.
“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Domestic Life
1870s, Society and Solitude (1870)
“One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.”
Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright
Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451
19 September 1777
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (1791)
Source: Fahrenheit 451
“do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”
Robert Greene book The 48 Laws of Power
Source: The 48 Laws of Power
“True friends never apart maybe in distance but never in heart”
Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and political activist
“All love that has not friendship for its base,
Is like a mansion built upon the sand.”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author and poet
Love
Poetry quotes, New Thought Pastels (1913)
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist
“Winning friends begins with friendliness.”
Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People
How to Win Friends and Influence People
Elie Wiesel (1928–2016) writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor
“Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief”
Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman
A.A. Milne book The House at Pooh Corner
Source: The House at Pooh Corner (1928), Chapter Seven.
Context: "Lucky we know the forest so well, or we might get lost," said Rabbit half an hour later, and he gave the careless laugh which you give when you know the Forest so well that you can't get lost.
Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind.
"Pooh!" he whispered.
"Yes, Piglet?"
"Nothing," said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. "I just wanted to be sure of you."
“To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness.”
Chinmayananda Saraswati (1916–1993) Indian spiritual teacher
Quotations from Gurudev’s teachings, Chinmya Mission Chicago
Clive Staples Lewis book The Four Loves
The Four Loves (1960)
Context: Friendship arises out of mere companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one."
“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”
Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer
Sand and Foam (1926)
“Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul!
Sweetener of life! and solder of society!”
Part I, line 88.
The Grave (1743)
“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Friendship
Variant: A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud…
“Friends are the family you can pick.”
Red Symons (1949) Australian broadcaster and musician
Attributed quotes
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer
" On The Conduct of Life" http://www.blupete.com/Literature/Essays/Hazlitt/ConductLife.htm (1822), reprinted in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1902-1904)
“You are beautiful and you are alone.”
Nico (1938–1988) German musician, model and actress, one of Warhol's superstars
Afraid
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
Walter Winchell (1897–1972) American gossip journalist
Attributed
“The friends of my friends are my friends.”
John le Carré book The Mission Song
The Mission Song (2006)
“Prosperity makes friends, adversity tries them.”
Publilio Siro Latin writer
Maxim 872
Sentences, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, a Roman Slave
“The best of it all is, God is with us.”
John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian
A statement among his final words, said to have been repeated two or three times, as quoted in The Living Wesley (1891) by James Harrison Rigg
Variants: The best of it is, God is with us.
Best of all, God is with us.
General sources
Eugene Kennedy (1928–2015) American psychologist
Eugene Kennedy, cited in: Kathy Wagoner (2002) The Promise of Friendship. p. 284
“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), Friendship
“A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else.”
Len Wein (1948–2017) American comic book writer and editor
Quoted in "1001 Affirmations" - by Herbert P. Windschitl - Poetry - 2003
“A Friend to all, is a Friend to none.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. ”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
“A friend is a gift you give yourself.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish novelist, poet, essayist, and travel writer
“Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations.”
Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer
“Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.”
Khalil Gibran (1883–1931) Lebanese artist, poet, and writer
“The greatest healing therapy is friendship and love.”
Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978) Vice-President of the USA under Lyndon B. Johnson
“Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.”
Baltasar Gracián (1601–1658) Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher
“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.”
Isocrates (-436–-338 BC) ancient greek rhetorician
“Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.”
Herman Melville (1818–1891) American novelist, short story writer, essayist, and poet
“The world is round so that friendship may encircle it.”
Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest
“Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend.”
Plautus (-254–-184 BC) Roman comic playwright of the Old Latin period
“True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.”
Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) British priest and writer
“If you have one true friend you have more than your share.”
Thomas Fuller (1608–1661) English churchman and historian
“One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.”
George Santayana (1863–1952) 20th-century Spanish-American philosopher associated with Pragmatism
“The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.”
Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978) Vice-President of the USA under Lyndon B. Johnson
“Every gift from a friend is a wish for your happiness.”
Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer
“Of all possessions a friend is the most precious.”
Herodotus (-484–-425 BC) ancient Greek historian, often considered as the first historian
Albert Camus (1913–1960) French author and journalist
Widely attributed, but likely apocryphal. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/08/23/friend/ Researchers have searched for this quote unsuccessfully in Camus' extant works. <br class="br">Disputed