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Friendship

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“You have lost a good friend. It is unfortunate. In return, you got a maid and a drunken driver. They are in, and we are out.”
Devyani Khobragade (born 1974) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As Devyani Khobragade exits US to return to India, a culture clash lingers, Times of India, 11 January 2014
“I have the happiness to be lodged with a Gentleman who is justly esteemed by all his Brethren, who has extensive practice both as a Physician & Surgeon & tho no Doctor himself, yet the oldest of them are not ashamed to consult with him in private. Besides this he is my intimate & familiar Friend & is willing upon every occasion to teach me as far as he knows himself.”
Joseph Black (1728–1799) said by 1799 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“'Is there, friend,' he cries, 'a spot That knows not Troy's unhappy lot?'”
John Conington (1825–1869) said by 1869 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Me, guilty me, make me your aim, O Rutules! mine is all the blame; He did no wrong, nor e'er could do; That sky, those stars attest 'tis true; Love for his friend too freely shown, This was his crime, and this alone.”
John Conington (1825–1869) said by 1869 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He who maligns an absent friend's fair fame, Who says no word for him when others blame, Who courts a reckless laugh by random hits, Just for the sake of ranking among wits, Who feigns what he ne'er saw, a secret blabs, Beware him, Roman! that man steals or stabs!”
John Conington (1825–1869) said by 1869 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A wise partner does not come between her man and his best friend.”
Lindsey Davis (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's very difficult standing here blessed as her one and only sister. Yolanda, from your one and only, I thank you for being a sister and for being a friend.”
Bernice King (born 1963) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On sister's death (24 May 2007)
“Adieu, Francoise, my trusted wife; Without you I'd have had a lonely life. You cheated lots of times but then, I forgave you in the end Though your lover was my friend.Adieu, Francoise, it's hard to die When all the birds are singing in the sky. Now that spring is in the air With your lovers ev'rywhere, Just be careful; I'll be there.”
Jacques Brel (1929–1978) first seen 1961 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Seasons in the Sun" (1961), as translated by Rod McKuen from Brel's song "Le Moribond" · McKuen performance · Beach Boys performance
Also quoted by: Rod McKuen
“They know how to remain silent; and though they are possessed of the most acute sensitiveness, they are, among the people I have met, those who express it least. A friend here can give his life with the greatest simplicity to save yours, though he never told you before that he loved you in such a profound and unselfish way.”
Mirra Alfassa (1878–1973) first seen 1916 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Her views on the ancient art of Samurai, quoted in "Japan (1916-20)", also in The Modern Review, Volume 23 by Ramananda Chatterjee (1918), p. 69
“Transformation: Compassion and loving kindness can transform an enemy into a friend, while right view and wisdom can transform suffering into happiness.”
Thích Nhật Từ (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There are two young Englishmen in the next rooms to ours who are superb; their two sisters, looking like umbrellas, are here too, dressed in pink, with a little friend in blue with red hair. She is a type I have tried to draw on horseback but have not succeeded.”
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901) first seen 1881 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: p. 56 - in a letter, Winter 1881 from Nice, where he stayed with his mother
“Nobody makes me do anything I don't want to do. It's my decision. So the biggest devil is me. I'm either my best friend or my worst enemy. And that's how I have to deal with it.”
Whitney Houston (1963–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Plato shows us how Socrates goes to his death in complete peace and composure. The death of Socrates is a beautiful death. Nothing is seen here of death’s terror. Socrates cannot fear death, since indeed it sets us free from the body. . . . Death is the soul’s great friend. So he teaches; and so, in wonderful harmony with his teaching, he dies.”
Oscar Cullmann (1902–1999) first seen 1996 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Better Hope for the Soul, The Watchtower magazine, 8/1 1996.
“Already in my own time the volume of business was much less than in the heyday of the Victorian age, when the developments of the industrial era stimulated the enterprise of promoters and led to the construction of our modern railways, docks, and other undertakings of public utility. That was the era which my friend Walter Elliot has so aptly called the `century of equipment'.”
Hugh Macmillan, Baron Macmillan (1873–1952) said by 1952 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I inclose the catalogue of your friend Jackson the quakeers library. Perhaps you have already heard that the owner cut his throat in the wine-cellar, where he was accustomed to retire after the family had gone to bed: and there, as one of his servants observeed, was his "dear head found lyeing among the hogsheads." You see the various ways there are of creeping out of the world.”
Joseph Ritson (1752–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I want to put my little affairs in order that I may live, if I am to live, or at least die, in comfort...and do, my good friend, let me then have a final account with you; for I am strongly inclined to suspect that we shall never meet again.”
Joseph Ritson (1752–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I can easily conceive that you see no reason for so much punctiliousness, but people act from their own conviction and their own feelings, and for my part I shall very readily confess that I had much rather both be and have a declared enemy, than an insincere friend.”
Joseph Ritson (1752–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Though I rather think he went a little too far, in putting his friend Mrs. Wisemans cat to death for killing a mouse, which, perhaps nature, certainly education, had taught her to look upon as a duty....”
Joseph Ritson (1752–1803) said by 1803 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“... my dear friend Poverty, nurse of philosophy”
Basil of Caesarea (329–379) said by 379 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A follow-the-leader process develops as firms and households see that others are profiting from speculative purchases. ‘There is nothing as disturbing to one’s well-being and judgment as to see a friend get rich.’ Unless it is to see a nonfriend get rich.”
Charles P. Kindleberger (1910–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Charles P. Kindleberger and Robert Z. Aliber, Manias, Panics, and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises (5th ed., 2005), Ch. 2 : Anatomy of a Typical Crisis
“I'm a friend of the children. No one should see them as pitiable subjects. People often relate childish behaviour to stupidity or foolishness. This needs to change. I want to level the playing field where I can learn from children. I can learn transparency from children. They're innocent and straightforward.”
Kailash Satyarthi (born 1954) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“From a distance you look like my friend Even though we are at war From a distance I just cannot comprehend What all this war is for.”
Julie Gold (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I am not immersed in self-admiration. When I am listening to Vivaldi or Japanese music or making spaghetti at three in the morning and realize that I don’t have the proper sauce for it, fame is of no use. The other way to put it is that I don’t have a talent for narcissism. Or, to put it yet another way, the mirror is not my best friend.”
Saul Leiter (1923–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The man who is ingenious and wise, who is accompanied by a friend, and who knows the intentions of others, as also the proper time and place for doing everything, can gain over, very easily, even a woman who is very hard to be obtained.”
Vātsyāyana (500–500) said by 500 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“(Shinzo) Abe is forever Taiwan's good friend.”
Eric Chu (born 1961) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Eric Chu (2022) cited in "Taiwan lost a friend, Tsai says after Abe shot dead" on Taipei Times, 9 July 2022.
“She [Draupadi] is my Vasudeva’s sakhi[friend].”
Rukmini wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Thus in Compliance with your repeated desires, I have given you a short account of divers passages of my life, 'till I have now come to more than fourscore years of age. How well I have acquitted my self in each, is for others rather to say, than for Your friend and servant John Wallis. Oxford January 29. 1696, 7.”
John Wallis (1616–1703) said by 1703 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A large, coarse-skinned young woman but with something of my friend's features, particularly the mouth.”
Ada Lovelace (1815–1852) said by 1852 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: John Hobhouse as quoted in Turney, Catherine (1972), Byron's Daughter: A Biography of Elizabeth Medora Leigh, Scribner, , pp. 138–39.
“I continue to find appealing the sentiment of a left-wing song that I learned in my childhood, which begins as follows: "If we should consider each other, a neighbor, a friend, or a brother, it could be a wonderful, wonderful world, it could be a wonderful world.”
Gerald Cohen (1941–2009) said by 2009 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A foreign lady friend of mine once wrote and asked me whether it is true that we Chinese believe, like the Mohamedans, that a woman has no soul. I wrote back and told her that we Chinese do not hold that a woman has no soul, but that we hold that a woman,—a true Chinese woman has no self.”
Gu Hongming (1857–1928) said by 1928 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I'm beyond lucky to have fallen in love with my best friend.”
Frances Bean Cobain (born 1992) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: May 13, 2013
“Much of the pleasure of shooting is what accompanies it and sharing it all with a good friend.”
George Bird Evans (1906–1998) said by 1998 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pervez Musharraf is a good friend. I was once asked to inaugurate his office in Rawalpindi because his mother wanted a Brahmin to inaugurate it. He's truly integrated with our culture.”
Subramanian Swamy (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“He (Asaduddin Owaisi) polarises Hindus in our favour, but whether that is deliberate or not, I can’t say. I like Owaisi. He is my friend. If you see us meeting in Central Hall (Parliament), then you will feel like two buddies are meeting.”
Subramanian Swamy (born 1939) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Undoubtedly Wittgenstein did greatly need human warmth and affection and he was enormously appreciative of any simple kindness. But a friendly relationship with him was very exacting. He could rebuke a friend with extreme harshness. He had a tendency to be suspicious of motives and character.”
Norman Malcolm (1911–1990) said by 1990 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The man was looking his way, with glasses. Buford waved. You never knew what old friend was out there. The Reb officer took off his hat, bowed formally.”
Michael Shaara (1928–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My friend, the moon god was Allah. He was just one of 360 idols in the Ka'aba in Mecca. And Muhammad knew all about this. The crescent moon is everywhere in Islam. Even Ramadan begins and ends with the crescent moon. Ask your mullah why!”
Jack T. Chick (1924–2016) said by 2016 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Only trying to make conversation, friend.” “Don’t bother—it’s an overrated activity at the best of times.”
Alastair Reynolds (born 1966) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I recently had dinner at a friend’s house where the number of guests eventually exceeded five. I understand that remaining at the dinner was a breach of the rule of six. I apologise for my mistake”
Jeremy Corbyn (born 1949) first seen 2020 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Jeremy Corbyn and Stanley Johnson apologise for Covid breaches The Guardian (1 October 2020).
“Dealt with a best friend getting killed. It was [by] two 35-year-old black men. Wasn't no police officer involved, wasn't anybody else involved, and I didn't hear anybody shouting "black lives matter" then.”
Richard Sherman (American football) first seen 2015 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Seattle Seahawks' Richard Sherman addresses 'Black Lives Matter' after post falsely attributed to him" (16 September 2015), by Stephen Cohen, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Hearst Seattle Media
“'I could always walk out on a husband. But I could never turn my back on a friend.'”
Susan Howatch (born 1940) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We [his art-friend & painter Morris Louis and Noland himself] were interested in Pollock but could gain no lead from him. He was too personal. But Frankenthaler showed us a way – a way to think about and use, color..”
Kenneth Noland (1924–2010) first seen 1990 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Cited in Anna Moszynska Abstract Art, Thames and Hudson (1990), p. 194
“What holds in peace this two-fold world, let this two-fold sentence show Amity to every friend, courtesy to every foe.”
Hafez (1325–1389) said by 1389 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God is the only lover and He loves in different forms - parents, husband, wife, friend, children, animals. All are His forms and He, Himself, has no form.”
Baba Hari Dass (1923–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A friend is a person who takes care of himself by being friendly to you.”
Eli Siegel (1902–1978) said by 1978 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“‘Everything you say always sounds exactly right, my friend. You have the gift of turning confusion into an epigram.’ He smiled. ‘Yes, but it is a kind of tyranny with me, for I am far too neat for my own good. And life, as we know, is mostly chaos.’”
Nick Drake (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Rhetoric is a dangerous art. It is the manipulation of the difference, one might say the distance, between truth and image [...] And in our times, that distance has become the means by which power is exercised [...] Rhetoric has been a force for persuasion since man began to speak, and to convince his enemy that he was indeed his friend.”
Nick Drake (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Fear is a powerful enemy, but a useful friend.”
Nick Drake (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My old friend. I know you see the reality of the streets, and the miseries of the people, and that is a valuable perspective. But remember the world of the wealthy, the priests and the nobles also suffers from dangerous tribulations. The two are not mutually exclusive.”
Nick Drake (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My dear friend, the world is really one vast marketplace. No one cares where a man is from as long as he has gold in his pocket, or something you want. And the remarkable thing is this: the wars have only encouraged demand, trade has actually boomed in these difficult years. The ships are full, everyone is happy. War and politics are irrelevant, unless the great flow of trade is disturbed.”
Nick Drake (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source