“Friendship … flourishes not so much by kindnesses as by sincerity.”

“We do not wish to become subordinate to any power. We will be friends with the powers of the world. We will be sincere friends to the powers that are sincere in their intentions and their friendship to us.”

“Be kind, condescending, and affable. Any one who has anything to say to a fellow-being, to say it with kind feelings and sincere desire to please; and this, whenever it is done, will atone for much awkwardness in the manner of expression.”

“It is characteristic of the most entire sincerity to be able to foreknow. When a nation or family is about to flourish, there are sure to be happy omens; and when it is about to perish, there are sure to be unlucky omens.”

“Being sociable and affable with people brings kindness and friendship.”

“Vows with so much passion, swears with so much grace,
That ’t is a kind of heaven to be deluded by him.”

“You can date the evolving life of a mind, like the age of a tree, by the rings of friendship formed by the expanding central trunk. In the course of my history, not love or marriage so much as friendship has promoted growth.”

“We feel much sorrow for you, the elm tree had said. But what kind of sorrow—a real and sincere sorrow, or the superficial and pedantic sorrow of the immortal for a frail and flickering creature that was about to die?”

“The more inwardly pure a man is, the higher his rank and the nobler his station, so much he assiduously labors with sincere performance and a great fear.”

“This is as much a part of my story as anything else. Friendship is love as much as any romance.”