“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.”
Letter to Bushrod Washington http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushrod_Washington (15 January 1783)
1780s
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George Washington 186
first President of the United States 1732–1799Related quotes

“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.

Source: Speech of 9 November 1867.

“Confidence is a plant of slow growth in an aged bosom.”
Speech, Jan. 14, 1766, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“I want to plant a few more seeds here and there before they plant me.”

Un Art de Vivre (The Art of Living) (1939), The Art of Friendship

“Be polite to all, but intimate with few.”

As quoted by Forrest C. Pogue, in "George C. Marshall: Global Commander" (1968)