Defining Friendship
“One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.” George Santayana
“A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.” Unknown
“A friend who understands your tears is much more valuable than a lot of friends who only know your smile.” Unknown
“Love is friendship set on fire.” Jeremy Taylor
“The essence of true friendship is to make allowance for another’s little lapses.” David Storey
“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.” David Tyson
“A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.” Donna Roberts
“A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.” Leo Buscaglia
“Experts on romance say for a happy marriage there has to be more than a passionate love. For a lasting union, they insist, there must be a genuine liking for each other. Which, in my book, is a good definition for friendship.” Marilyn Monroe
“Friends…they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.” Henry David Thoreau
“One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention.” Clifton Fadiman
“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The real test of friendship is can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple?” Eugene Kennedy
“A friend is one of the best things you can be and the greatest things you can have.” Sarah Valdez
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” Muhammad Ali
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” Anais Nin
“Friendship is when people know all about you but like you anyway.” Unknown
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched — they must be felt with the heart.” Helen Keller
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.” Toni Morrison
“Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.” Aristotle
Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.” George Washington
Speaking to the Importance of Friendship
“With every true friendship, we build more firmly the foundations on which the peace of the whole world rests.” Mahatma Gandhi
“Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.” John Evelyn
“A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence; which costs us nothing.” John Tillotson
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” Marcel Proust
“When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands.” Maria Shriver
“The quality of your life is the quality of your relationships.” Tony Robbins
“Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.” Washington Irving
“Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.” William Arthur Ward
“Share your smile with the world. It’s a symbol of friendship and peace.” Christie Brinkley
“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” Dr. Suess
“It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.” Epicurus
“If we treated ourselves as well as we treated our best friend, can you imagine?” Meghan Markle
“A sweet friendship refreshes the soul.” Proverbs 27:9
“Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.” Miles Franklin
“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.” Woodrow T. Wilson
“Awards become corroded. Friends gather no dust.” Jesse Owens
“The love that comes from friendship is the underlying facet of a happy life.” Chelsea Handler
“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.” Tennessee Williams
“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” Abraham Lincoln
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” Albert Schweitzer
“Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.” Misty Copeland
“But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.” Thomas Jefferson
“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” Helen Keller
Advice for Friendship
“Mutual caring relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in the other’s achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain.” Fred Rogers
“If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.” Zig Ziglar
“People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.” Joseph F. Newton Men
“Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.” Mark Twain
“It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.” Marlene Dietrich
“Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they’re trying to find someone who’s going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take.” Anthony Robbins
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.” Plutarch
“Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.” Oscar Wilde
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” Maya Angelou
“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Jim Rohn
“How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live ’em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give ’em.” Shel Silverstein
“The royal road to a man’s heart is to talk to him about the things he treasures most.” Dale Carnegie
“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.” Oscar Wilde
“No friendship is an accident.” O. Henry
“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant.”’ Socrates
“Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.” Thomas J. Watson
“They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.” Carl W. Buechner
“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” Amy Poehler
“Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” Albert Camus
“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” Confucius
“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” Oprah Winfrey
“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” Khalil Gibran
“If you can’t love yourself, how in the hell are you going to love somebody else?” Rupaul Charles
Speaking to the Honesty, Loyalty, and Acceptance of Friends
“A friend can tell you things you don’t want to tell yourself.” Frances Ward Weller
“If it’s very painful for you to criticize your friends — you’re safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that’s the time to hold your tongue.” Alice Duer Miller
“A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling.” Arthur Brisbane
“‘Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.” Charles Lamb
“When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” Donald Miller
“Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.” Ed Cunningham
“When it hurts to look back and you’re afraid to look ahead, you can look beside you and your best friend will be there.” Unknown
“A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they’re not so bad.” Arnold H. Glasgow
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” Ernest Hemingway
“If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.” Maxwell Maltz
“Friendship is accepting a person with all their qualities — good and bad.” Mohanlal
“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.” Gloria Naylor
“The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when someone asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.” Henry David Thoreau
“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends.” Jane Austen
“There’s nothing like a really loyal, dependable, good friend. Nothing.” Jennifer Aniston
“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.” Winnie the Pooh
“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.” Winnie the Pooh
“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.” Henri Nouwen
True Friends
“My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.” Henry Ford
“My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake.” Aristotle
“False friendship, like the ivy, decays and ruins the walls it embraces; but true friendship gives new life and animation to the object it supports.” Richard Burton
“The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing…not healing, not curing…that is a friend who cares.” Henri Nouwen
“The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” Elisabeth Foley
“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.” Eleanor Roosevelt
“A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.” Arnold H. Glasgow
“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.” Bernard Meltzer
“Never let your best friends get lonely…keep disturbing them.” Candlelight Publications
“I don’t know what I would have done so many times in my life if I hadn’t had my girlfriends.” Reese Witherspoon
“It’s not that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but it’s your best friends who are your diamonds.” Gina Barreca
“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” Oprah Winfrey
“True friends are like diamonds — bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style.” Nicole Richie
“True friends are always together in spirit.” L.M. Montgomery
“Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare — and precious as a pearl.” Tahar Ben Jelloun
“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” Thomas Aquinas
“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.” G. Randolf
“A good friend is like a four-leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have.” Irish Proverb
“Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.” Jean de la Fontaine
“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
“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. “ Linda Grayson
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” Walter Winchell
“True friendship is when you walk into their house and your WiFi connects automatically.” Unknown
“We’ll be best friends forever because you already know too much.” Unknown
“A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in your garden.” Unknown
New Friends
“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.” Maya Angelou
“Everyone you meet knows something you don’t know but need to know. Learn from them.” C.G. Jung
“Don’t be afraid of new beginnings. Don’t shy away from new people, new energy, new surroundings. Embrace new chances at happiness.” Billy Chapata
“Each new friendship can make you a new person, because it opens up new doors inside of you.” Kate DiCamillo
“Be genuinely interested in everyone you meet and everyone you meet will be genuinely interested in you.” Rasheed Ogunlaru
“Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them.” Francesco Guicciardini
“Every new friend is a new adventure… the start of more memories.” Patrick Lindsay
“The kindest way of helping yourself is to find a friend.” Ann Kaiser Stearns
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” C.S. Lewis
“You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.” Dale Carnegie
“The best time to make friends is before you need them.” Ethel Barrymore
“If you are ever lucky enough to find a weirdo, never let them go.” Matthew Gray Gubler
“There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.” Jim Henson
Long-Distance Friends
“There are friendships imprinted in our hearts that will never be diminished by time and distance.” Dodinsky
“No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth.” Robert Southey
“A real friendship should not fade as time passes, and should not weaken because of space separation.” John Newton
“Distance means so little, when someone means so much.” Tom McNeal
“A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand.” Kahlil Gibran
“A strong friendship doesn’t need daily conversation or being together. As long as the relationship lives in the heart, true friends never part.” Unknown
“A part of you has grown in me, together forever we shall be, never apart, maybe in distance, but not in heart.” Unknown
“Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.” Ally Condie
“There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.” Diana Cortes
“Time doesn’t take away from friendship, nor does separation.” Tennessee Williams
“True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart.” Unknown
Lost Friends
“The tender friendships one gives up, on parting, leave their bite on the heart, but also a curious feeling of a treasure somewhere buried.” Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” Alice Walker
“Friendship is like a glass ornament, once it is broken it can rarely be put back together exactly the same way.” Charles Kingsley
“Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone — but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming.” William Hazlitt