“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few,”
Letter to Bushrod Washington http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushrod_Washington (15 January 1783)
1780s
Context: Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
George Washington 186
first President of the United States 1732–1799Related quotes
Letter to Bushrod Washington http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushrod_Washington (15 January 1783)
1780s
“Be polite to all, but intimate with few.”
In a letter to his friend Peiresc, Dec. 1634 - LPPR, 393; as quoted by Simon Schrama, in Rembrandt's eyes, Alfred A. Knopf - Borzoi Books, New York 1999, p. 403
At a speed which was daunting even for someone of his facility, Rubens was asked to supply the designs for four stages and five triumphal arches in the city Antwerp. Though he could rely on his scholarly friends for help with the allegorical program and his workshop for assistance in fabricating them, he still became 'overburdened' with the work
1625 - 1640
Source: Memories of My Melancholy Whores
“And for the few that only lend their ear,
That few is all the world.”
Musophilus (1599), Stanza 97, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“Few are guilty, but all are responsible.”
Source: The Prophets