Famous quotes
Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide
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Friendship
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“We live, in fact, in a world starved for solitude, silence, and privacy: and therefore starved for meditation and true friendship.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship, I have said, is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself...”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Opposition is true Friendship.”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity...”
William Blake (1757–1827) said by 1827 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What renders man an imaginative and moral being is that in society he gives new aims to his life which could not have existed in solitude: the aims of friendship, religion, science, and art.”
George Santayana (1863–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is said of money that it is more easily made than kept and this is true of many things, such as friendship; and even life itself is more easily got than kept.”
Samuel Butler (novelist) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In friendship false, implacable in hate, Resolved to ruin, or to rule the state.”
John Dryden (1631–1700) said by 1700 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Dad on friendship: "Sure, some people are nice. Real nice. Nice like carpets so you can walk all over them.”
David Sedaris (born 1956) first seen 1979 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 16.04.1979 - p.31
“A presentation copy...is a copy of a book whoch does not sell, sent you by the author, with his foolish autograph at the beginning of it; for which, if a stranger, he only demands your friendship; if a brother author, he expects from you a book of yours, which does not sell, in return.”
Charles Lamb (1775–1834) said by 1834 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul! Sweetener of life! and solder of society!”
Robert Blair (1699–1746) said by 1746 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship includes charity. But there's no charity in sex.”
Kingsley Amis (1922–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truth is the band of union and the basis of human happiness. Without this virtue there is no reliance upon language, no confidence in friendship, no security in promises and oaths.”
Jeremy Collier (1650–1726) said by 1726 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Money and friendship bribe justice. Beauty is potent, but money is omnipotent.”
John Ray (1627–1705) said by 1705 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“..if he'll [ Gauguin ] accept it, you [Theo] shall give him a version of the 'Berceuse' that wasn't mounted on a stretching frame, and to Bernard too, as a token of friendship. But if Gauguin wants sunflowers it's only absolutely fair that he gives you something that you like as much in exchange. Gauguin himself above all liked the sunflowers later, when he had seen them for a long time.”
Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890) first seen 1889 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: In a letter to Theo, from Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, c. 23 May 1889 - original manuscript of letter 776 at Van Gogh Museum, location Amsterdam - inv. nos. b322 a-c V/1962
“There is something in the unselfish and self-sacrificing love of a brute, which goes directly to the heart of him who has had frequent occasion to test the paltry friendship and gossamer fidelity of mere Man.”
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–1849) said by 1849 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“All love that has not friendship for its base, Is like a mansion built upon the sand.”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) said by 1919 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship is the next Pleasure we may hope for: And where we find it not at home, or have no home to find it in, we may seek it abroad. It is an Union of Spirits, a Marriage of Hearts, and the Bond thereof Vertue.”
William Penn (1644–1718) said by 1718 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I could bear to suffer... so many have suffered. But why must it be like this? I have not deserved it. I have been true in friendship; I have faithfully nursed others in sickness... Why must I die like this, alone with my mortal enemy?”
Willa Cather (1873–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Wit and good nature meeting in a fair young lady as they do in you make the best resemblance of an angel that we know; and he that is blessed with the conversation and friendship of a person so extraordinary enjoys all that remains of paradise in this world.”
John Locke (1632–1704) first seen 1682 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Mary Clarke (7 May 1682), quoted in Maurice Cranston, John Locke: A Biography (1957; 1985), p. 221
“Few things tend more to alienate friendship than a want of punctuality in our engagements. I have known the breach of a promise to dine or sup to break up more than one intimacy.”
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) first seen 1824 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On the Spirit of Obligations" (1824)
“It is nothing against the validity of a friendship that the parties to it have not a mutual resemblance. There must be a basis of agreement, but the structure reared upon it may contain a thousand disparities.”
Henry James (1843–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“She often wondered indeed if she ever had been, or ever could be, intimate with anyone. She had an ideal of friendship as well as of several other sentiments, which it failed to seem to her in this case – it had not seemed to her in other cases – that the actual completely expressed.”
Henry James (1843–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I never really have believed in the existence of friendship in big societies—in great towns and great crowds. It is a plant that takes times and space and air; and London society is a huge "squash," as we elegantly call it—an elbowing, pushing, perspiring, chattering mob.”
Henry James (1843–1916) said by 1916 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship craves The commerce of the mind, not the exchange Of emulous feasts that foster sycophants.”
Alfred Austin (1835–1913) said by 1913 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The mind of a wise man is the safest custody of secrets; cheerfulness is the key to friendship; patience and forbearance will conceal many defects.”
Ali (599–661) said by 661 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every Conservative desires peace. The threat to peace comes from Communism, which has powerful forces ready to attack anywhere. Communism waits for weakness, it leaves strength alone. Britain therefore must be strong, strong in arms, and strong in faith in her own way of life. The greatest hope for peace lies in friendship and co-operation with the United States of America.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1951 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1951 General Election Address (8 October 1951)
“God, how we get our fingers in each other’s clay. That’s friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of the other.”
Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”
Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Of all the things that are beyond my power, I value nothing more highly than to be allowed the honor of entering into bonds of friendship with people who sincerely love truth. For, of things beyond our power, I believe there is nothing in the world which we can love with tranquility except such men.”
Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) said by 1677 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing.”
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) said by 1923 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in Katherine Mansfield : A Biography (1953) by Antony Alpers, p. 266
“When combined, the small individual contributors of caring, friendship, forgiveness, and love, each of us different from our next-door neighbors, can form a phalanx, an army, with great capability.”
Jimmy Carter (1924–2024) said by 2024 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of his sentences, written two months after his last interview with Mrs. Sinico, read: Love between man and man is impossible because there must not be sexual intercourse and friendship between man and woman is impossible because there must be sexual intercourse.”
James Joyce (1882–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship is the cement of two minds, As of one man the soul and body is; Of which one cannot sever but the other Suffers a needful separation.”
George Chapman (1559–1634) said by 1634 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Society friendship and love Divinely bestow'd upon man, O had I the wings of a dove How soon I would taste you again!”
William Cowper (1731–1800) said by 1800 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Marriage is a framework to preserve friendship. It is valuable because it gives much more room to develop than just living together. It provides a base from which a person can work at understanding himself and another person.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am wholly decided and resolved to go in person to help my brother because his need is so great and the perils so extreme that it does not merely threaten him but places all Christendom at risk. I cannot and must not abandon him because of the office I hold and because of the obligations of fraternal friendship and also because he is such a good brother to me.”
Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor (1500–1558) first seen 1528 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (Charles’ letter to his aunt Margaret, 23rd September 1529), Ch. 8. Champion of the Western World, 1528-31
“I cannot but bring to your mind those days when the whole of Eastern Asia, from Burma to Japan was united with India in the closest ties of friendship...”
Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) said by 1941 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rabindranath Tagore, Essays, Nationalism in Japan, Atlantic Publishers & Dist, 2007 p.471, and quoted in A Look at India From the Views of Other Scholars, by Stephen Knapp
“The man of Hope, Barack Obama. America is stronger because of President Obama's leadership, and I'm better because of his friendship.”
Hillary Clinton (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“These are called the pious frauds of friendship.”
Henry Fielding (1707–1754) said by 1754 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Charity, by which God and neighbor are loved, is the most perfect friendship.”
Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) first seen 1270 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quaestiones disputatae: De caritate (Disputed Questions: On Charity, c. 1270)
“Friendship was just diplomacy by other means, after all.”
Kim Stanley Robinson (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship needs no words — it is solitude delivered from the anguish of loneliness.”
Dag Hammarskjöld (1905–1961) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 1925–1930
“Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.”
Sydney Smith (1771–1845) said by 1845 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A Platonic friendship is perhaps only possible when one or other of the Platonists is in love with a third person.”
Evelyn Beatrice Hall (1868–1956) said by 1956 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“What you call weakness comes from the strength of friendship.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We always lose the friendship of those who lose our esteem.”
Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If our friendship depends on things like space and time, then when we finally overcome space and time, we've destroyed our own brotherhood! But overcome space, and all we have left is Here. Overcome time, and all we have left is Now. And in the middle of Here and Now, don't you think that we might see each other once or twice?”
Richard Bach (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When friendship disappears then there is a space left open to that awful loneliness of the outside which is like the cold of space between the planets. It is an air in which men perish utterly. Absolute dereliction is the death of the soul.”
Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was the last to consent to the separation; but the separation having been made and having become inevitable, I have always said, as I say now, that I would be the first to meet the friendship of the United States as an independent power.”
George III (1738–1820) said by 1820 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To John Adams, as quoted in Adams, C.F. (editor) (1850–56), The works of John Adams, second president of the United States, vol. VIII, pp. 255–257, quoted in Ayling, p. 323 and Hibbert, p. 165