“I would rather have your friendship than the love of any other woman in the world!”

“If we would build on a sure foundation in friendship, we must love friends for their sake rather than for our own.”

“I would rather die than ever see you suffering this way. I don't want you or any child I ever have or any woman I ever love to go through or feel what you're going through, but it's happened and I don't know what to do.”

“If there is such a thing as a good marriage, it is because it resembles friendship rather than love.”

“My mind… It's who I am. I think I'd rather suffer any other injury in the world than have my mind tampered with.”

“True friendship implies full confidence, which may only be completely given or completely withdrawn. If friendship has continually to be analyzed, nursed, and cured, it will cause more anguish than love itself, without having love's strength and its remedies. And if this confidence is ill-placed? Well - I would rather be betrayed by a false friend than deceive a true one.”

“There's nothing you could have done that would cause me to cease loving either of you. Will is myself, my own soul, and if I am not to have the keeping of your heart, then there is not other I would rather have that honor.”

“I would rather be at the table making decisions with other countries than walking away and not having a say.”

“I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.”

“I cannot understand your nature. If my nature had been made to suit your comprehension rather than my own requirements, I am afraid I would have made a very poor figure in the world.”