Quotes about friend
page 10

“Friend is a very small word,
A little sound we make,
For one who is true, one who will do,
Great deeds for friendship's sake.”

Brian Jacques book The Bellmaker

Source: The Bellmaker

Friendship

“Applaud my friends, the comedy is over…”

Ludwig Van Beethoven (1770–1827) German Romantic composer

on his death bed
Original: Plaudite, amici, comedia finita est.

Death

“The essence of childhood, of course, is play, which my friends and I did endlessly on streets that we reluctantly shared with traffic.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

Childhood

“It was a little weird that they were friends. But then, maybe freaks just tended to find each other.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Angel

“Good health, longevity, happiness, a loving family, self-reliance, fine friends … if you [have] five, you’re a rich man….”

Thomas J. Stanley (1944–2015) American businessman

Source: The Millionaire Next Door: The Surprising Secrets of Americas Wealthy

Love, Happiness, Health, Family

“What are friends for, if not to help bear our sins?”

Nella Larsen (1891–1964) Novelist, librarian, nurse

Source: The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and the Stories

Help

“When we're all alone, it might be to frightening to bear… but we're all right beside each other. We've got our friends close by! Now, there's nothing to fear! Because we're not alone!!!”

Hiro Mashima (1977) Japanese manga artist

Fear

“We've no use for intellectuals in this outfit. What we need is chimpanzees. Let me give you a word of advice: never say a word to us about being intelligent. We will think for you, my friend. Don't forget it.”

Louis-ferdinand Céline book Journey to the End of the Night

Source: Journey to the End of the Night

Intelligence, Thinking, Forgetting

“We ought so to behave to one another as to avoid making enemies of our friends, and at the same time to make friends of our enemies.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in Diogenes Laërtius, Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, "Pythagoras", Sect. 23, as translated in Dictionary of Quotations http://archive.org/details/dictionaryquota02harbgoog (1906) by Thomas Benfield Harbottle, p. 320

Time

“i been meek, and hard like an oak, i seen pretty people disappear like smoke. friends will arrive, friends will disappear. if you want me, honey baby, i'll be here.”

Bob Dylan (1941) American singer-songwriter, musician, author, and artist

People, Baby

“I assure you, my friends, I am cone sold stober.”

Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

“There is no friend as loyal as a book.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

Books, Friendship, For Friend, For Bestfriend

“Relationships are incredibly amorphous. They could get back together. They could stay friends. Who's to say what will happen in the future?”

Jenny Han book To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Source: To All the Boys I've Loved Before

Future

“I remember a friend many years ago who had taped a sign to his refrigerator: There's a dream dreaming us. If you try to think about what that means it makes your mind silly, but that silliness is good.”

Natalie Goldberg (1948) American writer

Source: Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life

Dreams, Thinking

“[Will Herondale] would say he knew a warlock who was a better friend, and more worth trusting, than many a nephilim warrior.”

Cassandra Clare (1973) American author

Source: The Midnight Heir

“When you see the Crooked Warden," said Locke, twisting something in his hands, "tell him that Lock Lamora learns slowly, but he learns well. And when you see my friends, you tell them that there are more of you on the way.”

Scott Lynch The Lies of Locke Lamora

Source: The Lies of Locke Lamora

Way, Learning

“I have only one friend, and that is echo. Why is it my friend? Because I love my sorrow, and echo does not take it away from me. I have only one confidant, and that is the silence of night. Why is it my confidant? Because it remains silent.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Source: Entweder / Oder

Love, Confidence, Silence, Night

“You have the rest of your lives to catch up together. After all, soulmates always end up together. […] Ey-girlfriends are easily forgotten. Best friends stay with you for ever.”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Variant: After all, soulmates always end up together. Silly Bethany won't even be remembered then. Ex-girlfriends are easily forgotten. Best friends stay with you for ever.
Source: Where Rainbows End

“Friends are honest with each other. Even if the truth hurts.
-Maggie”

Sarah Dessen book Along for the Ride

Source: Along for the Ride

Truth, Hurt

“I think writers are the most narcissistic people. Well, I musn't say this, I like many of them, a great many of my friends are writers.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

People, Thinking

“That's what this war is all about, my friend. It's about which of us is the crazier. And clearly you British have an advantage. You were crazy beforehand.”

Michael Morpurgo book War Horse

Source: War Horse

War

“Books are like friends to me. Words come alive on the page.”

Beverly Lewis (1949) American writer

Books

“My wife is my closest friend. Sure, I'm attracted to her in every way possible, but that's not the answer. Because I've been attracted to other people, and I couldn't stand 'em after a while.”

Clint Eastwood (1930) actor and director from the United States

People, Way

“It is really hard to be lonely very long in a world of words. Even if you don't have friends somewhere, you still have language, and it will find you and wrap its little syllables around you and suddenly there will be a story to live in.”

Naomi Shihab Nye (1952) American writer

Source: I'll Ask You Three Times, Are You OK?: Tales of Driving and Being Driven

World

“Consider it: every person you have ever met, every person will suffer the loss of his friends and family. All are going to lose everything they love in this world. Why would one want to be anything but kind to them in the meantime?”

Sam Harris (1967) American author, philosopher and neuroscientist

Source: The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason

Love, World, Family, Suffering

“I had been in the ditch for 2 and a half min. I wondered if my friends missed me.”

Wendy Mass (1967) American children's writer

Source: Finally

“We can do anything. It’s not because
our hearts are large, they’re not, it’s what we
struggle with. The attempt to say Come over. Bring
your friends. It’s a potluck, I’m making pork chops, I’m making
those long noodles you love so much.”

Richard Siken (1967) American poet

Source: Crush

Love, Heart

“If the enemy of my enemy is my friend, then surely you should be friend to my friend.”

Holly Black book The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

Source: The Coldest Girl in Coldtown

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Source: Emerson in His Journals

Stupidity, Friendship, For Friend, For Bestfriend

“She told the story, however, with great spirit among her friends; for she had a lively, playful disposition, which delighted in any thing ridiculous.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

“Friends share all things.”

Pythagoras (-585–-495 BC) ancient Greek mathematician and philosopher

As quoted in Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, "Pythagoras", Sect. 10

“Always sleep with one eye open. Never take anything for granted. Your best friends might just be your enemies.”

Sara Shepard The Lying Game

Source: The Lying Game

Sleep

“Friends are God's way of apologizing for your family.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Source: The Power of Intention: Learning to Co-create Your World Your Way

God, Family, Way

“My friend is going to save a little girl from monsters. I am going with him. That's what friends do.”

Jim Butcher book Changes

Source: Changes

Girl

“This world… belongs to the strong, my friend! The ritual of our existence is based on the strong getting stronger by devouring the weak.”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

World, Strong

“Let no one think of me that I am humble or weak or passive; let them understand I am of a different kind: dangerous to my enemies, loyal to my friends. To such a life glory belongs.”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Source: Medea and Other Plays: Medea / Alcestis / The Children of Heracles / Hippolytus

Life, Understanding, Thinking

“What a delighted fascination it is, to stand aside and watch our dearest friend perform on stage without us.”

Richard Bach (1936) American spiritual writer

Source: The Bridge Across Forever: A True Love Story

“Some guys step on a rake in the dark, and get mad and go punch somebody. Others step on a rake in the dark and fall down laughing at themselves. I know which kind of guy I'd rather be. So do my friends.”

Spider Robinson book Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

Source: Callahan's Crosstime Saloon

Guy, Madness

“It's not right for one friend to do all the giving and the other to do all the taking: that's not read friendship.”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: After the Quake

Friendship, Reading

“It's not something you tell your single best friend. It'd be like rubbing your nose in the poop of my happiness.”

Shannon Hale book Austenland

Source: Austenland

Happiness

“As my father used to say: “There are two sure ways to lose a friend, one is to borrow, the other to lend.””

Patrick Rothfuss book The Name of the Wind

Source: The Name of the Wind (2007), Chapter 49, “The Nature of Wild Things” (p. 354)

Way

“Within Easy Company they had made the best friends they had ever had, or would ever have. They were prepared to die for each other; more important, they were prepared to kill for each other.”

Stephen E. Ambrose (1936–2002) American historian

Source: Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest

“But if you are single the last thing you want is your best friend forming a functional relationship with somebody else.”

Helen Fielding book Bridget Jones's Diary

Source: Bridget Jones's Diary

“He will never have true friends who is afraid of making enemies.”

William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer

No. 401
Characteristics, in the manner of Rochefoucauld's Maxims (1823)
Source: Selected Essays, 1778-1830

Friendship

“And it seemed to me that there were fires
Flying till dawn without number
And I never found out things-those
Strange eyes of his-what colour?

Everything trembling and singing and
Were you my enemy or my friend,
Winter was it or summer?”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

Winter, Singing, Summer, Flying

“You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.”

Laurence J. Peter (1919–1990) Canadian eductor

Fools, Feeling, For Friend

“Good morning, Revolution: You're the very best friend I ever had. We gonna pal around together from now on”

Langston Hughes (1902–1967) American writer and social activist

“My shadow serves as the friend I crave.”

Anna Akhmatova (1889–1966) Russian modernist poet

“I loathe a friend whose gratitude grows old, a friend who takes his friend's prosperity but will not voyage with him in his grief”

Euripidés (-480–-406 BC) ancient Athenian playwright

Gratitude

“Be careful the environment you choose for it will shape you; be careful the friends you choose for you will become like them.”

W. Clement Stone (1902–2002) American New Thought author

As quoted in How to Be the Employee Your Company Can't Live Without : 18 Ways to Become Indispensable (2006) by Glenn Shepard

“Diamonds are a girl's best friend.”

Jule Styne (1905–1994) British-born American songwriter

Source: The Songs of Jule Styne

Girl

“We are all good friends. Friendship is what endures. Shared ideals, respect for the whole character of a human being.”

E.L. Doctorow Ragtime

Source: Ragtime

Friendship

“Jo's eyes sparkled, for it's always pleasant to be believed in; and a friend's praise is always sweeter than a dozen newspaper puffs.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

“A new friend is always a miracle, but at thirty-three years old, such a bird of paradise rising in the sage-brush was an avatar. One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.”

Henry Adams book The Education of Henry Adams

Source: The Education of Henry Adams

Bird

“Even friends need private spaces, if only within the depths of their own souls, where no one else is allowed to intrude.”

Mary Balogh (1944) Welsh-Canadian novelist

Source: Simply Magic

Soul

“Friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of regard.”

Stephen King book The Gunslinger

Variant: Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.
Source: The Gunslinger

Lie, Lovers

“My best friend is one who brings out the best in me”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

Actually due to Harris Weinstock: "My best friend is the man who can bring out of me my best, and your best friend is the one who tends to bring out the best in you" (May 1914) Attributed to Henry Ford as early as 1948.
Misattributed

Friendship, Valentine's Day, For Friend, For Bestfriend

“I'm Magnus." He smiled, showing blinding white teeth.
"Magnus Bane."
"Are we long-lost friends, by any chance?" Simon said.
"Just wondering."
"No, we never got along all that well," said Magnus.
"Long-lost acquaintances? Compadres? My cat liked you.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Smile, Cats, Chance

“Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances.”

Jay Leno (1950) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, voice actor and television host

People, Books

“My father always used
to say that when you die,
if you've got five real friends,
then you've had a great life.”

Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American businessman

Life

“And taking her friend’s hand, she put it on her breast, on that firm round covering of a woman’s heart which the male often finds so satisfying that he makes no attempt to find what lies beneath it.”

Guy De Maupassant (1850–1893) French writer

Heart

“One of the characteristics of the dream is that nothing surprises us in it. With no regret, we agree to live in it with strangers, completely cut off from our habits and friends.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

"Du Rêve" in La Difficulté d’Etre [The Difficulty of Being] (1947)

Dreams

“A miracle, my friend, is an event which creates faith.”

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright

Faith

“And thus we all are nighing
The truth we fear to know:
Death will end our crying
For friends that come and go.”

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935) American poet

Death, Truth, Fear, Cry

“Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little.”

Gore Vidal (1925–2012) American writer

Quoted in The Sunday Times Magazine, London (16 September 1973).
1970s
Variant: Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.

Time

“Lies," Mr Solomon said the next morning as he walked into the classroom. "We tell them to our friends," he said. "We tell them to our enemies. And eventually… we tell them to ourselves.”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

“She was a stranger now, but she'd been a friend once, and that was enough for him.”

Nicholas Sparks book The Last Song

Source: The Last Song

“When you handle books all day long, every new one is a friend and a temptation.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Historian

Source: The Historian

Books

“Rule number three: Best friends always think you deserve the best guy even if the best guy barely knows you exist.”

Candace Bushnell book The Carrie Diaries

Source: The Carrie Diaries

Guy, Thinking

“When I first met him, he did not care if a friend did not fit into his world, because at that time his world had not been born yet.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

World, Time

“The Night World isn't a place. It's all around us. The creatures of Night World are beautiful and deadly and irresitable to humans. Your best friend could be one-so could your crush.”

L.J. Smith (1965) American author

World, Beauty, Night

“I will never hurt you.
I will always help you.
If you are hungry
Ill give you my food.
If you are frightened
I am your friend.
I love you now.
And love does not end.”

Orson Scott Card Songmaster

Source: Songmaster

Love, Food, Help, Hurt

“Some people standby you in your darkest hour while others walk away; only a select few march towards you and become even closer friends.”

Jeffrey Archer book Only Time Will Tell

Source: Only Time Will Tell

People

“Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance.”

David Nicholls book One Day

Variant: Cherish your friends, stay true to your principles, live passionately and fully and well. Experience new things. Love and be loved, if you ever get the chance
Source: One Day

Love, Passion, Chance

“In business, sir, one has no friends, only correspondents.”

Alexandre Dumas (1802–1870) French writer and dramatist, father of the homonym writer and dramatist

Business

“She smiled, turning toward Alek. "You don't know what a friend you have in Dylan.”

Scott Westerfeld book Behemoth

Source: Behemoth

Smile

“Highlanders make the truest friends-if only because they make the worst enemies.”

Diana Gabaldon book A Breath of Snow and Ashes

Source: A Breath of Snow and Ashes

“He doesn’t have to love your CD collection. He doesn’t have to love your shoes. But any good, mature guy better make an attempt to love your friends and family—especially when they’re great.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

Love, Family, Shoe, Guy

“…she was one of those happily created beings who please without effort, make friends everywhere, and take life so gracefully and easily that less fortunate souls are tempted to believe that such are born under a lucky star.”

Louisa May Alcott book Little Women

Source: Little Women

Life, Soul, Star, Effort

“Defend the weak, protect both young and old, never desert your friends. Give justice to all, be fearless in battle and always ready to defend the right."

—The law of Badger Lords”

Brian Jacques book Lord Brocktree

Source: Lord Brocktree

Justice, Law

“I think that everything he did, feeding the poor, giving money to friends in need, it was all a way of redeeming himself. And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.”

Khaled Hosseini book The Kite Runner

Source: The Kite Runner (2003)

Money, Way, Thinking

“and yet she was leaving the world as a woman who had love and been loved back. she was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. a mother. a person of consequence at last.”

Khaled Hosseini book A Thousand Splendid Suns

Mariam, p. 370
A Thousand Splendid Suns (2007)
Context: She was leaving the world as woman who had loved and been loved back. She was leaving it as a friend, a companion, a guardian. A mother. A person of consequence at last. No. It was not so bad, Mariam thought, that she should die this way. Not so bad.

Love, World, Personality

“My name is Jimmy,
but my friends just call me
the hideous penguin boy.”

Tim Burton (1958) American filmmaker

Source: The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories

Boy

“Time, dear friend, time brings round opportunity; opportunity is the martingale of man. The more we have ventured the more we gain, when we know how to wait.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Three Musketeers

Source: The Three Musketeers

Time, Waiting

“My friend died. (Astrid)
Died how? (Zarek)
Mmm, he had parvo. (Astrid)
Isn’t that a dog’s disease? (Zarek)
Yes. It was tragic. (Astrid)
Hey! I resent that. (Sasha)
Behave or I will give you parvo. (Astrid)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon book Dance with the Devil

Source: Dance with the Devil

Disease, Dogs

“If all we've got to look forward to is disloyalty and treachery, why do we even make friends?"
"Again, human nature. Hoping for the best is what drives us.”

Gena Showalter (1975) American writer

Source: Intertwined

Hope, Nature

“On books and friends I spend my money;
For stones and bricks I haven't any.”

Ruskin Bond (1934) British Indian writer

Source: Rain in the Mountains: Notes from the Himalayas

Money, Books

“OR am I the only warlock you know?"
"No… but you are the only warlock we know who happens to dating a friend of ours.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“A friend doesn't go on a diet because you are fat.”

Erma Bombeck (1927–1996) When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent le…

“Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.”

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, statesman, scientist, jurist, and author

No. 97
Apophthegms (1624)
Context: Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that age appears to be best in four things — old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.

Age, Drink, Appearance, Wine

“You always knew after shitty things happened, who your friends really were.”

Jodi Picoult book The Pact

Source: The Pact

“If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Love, Angels, Flowers, Heart

“Your own tactic is to train yourself in the art of becoming enigmatic to everybody. My young friend, suppose there was no one who troubld himself to guess your riddle--what joy, then, would you have in it?”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Variant: You train yourself in the art of being mysterious to everyone. My dear friend! What if there were no one, who cared about guessing your riddle, what pleasure would you then take in it?
Source: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life

Art, Joy, Training

“Nobody likes being alone that much. I don't go out of my way to make friends, that's all. It just leads to disappointment.”

Haruki Murakami book Norwegian Wood

Source: Norwegian Wood

Disappointment, Way, For Friend