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Friendship

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“I consider myself to be a true friend of the Israeli people. But I define friendship as someone who takes care of a friend, who just doesn't use or exploit a friend. And, you know, there's that old adage: 'Friends don't let friends drive drunk'.”
Scott Ritter (born 1961) first seen 2006 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech at New York Ethical Culture Society, 2006
“Hast thou a Friend, as heart may wish at will? Then use him so, to have his friendship still. Would'st have a Friend, would'st know what friend is best? Have God thy friend who passeth all the rest.”
Thomas Tusser (1524–1580) said by 1580 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Posies for a Parlour, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“On the whole, I don't have any friends. Friends come and go; I've lost my trust factor. I believe I have people who think they're my friend. And I believe that there are people probably in their heart who are friends toward me or are friends to me. But they're not my friends, because what I learned is that fear is stronger than love.”
Tupac Shakur (1971–1996) said by 1996 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Every social need, such as the need for friendship, must be a party to its own satisfaction: I cannot passively find my friend as a ready-made friend; a ready-made human being he may be, but his friendship for me I must help to create by my own active resolve.”
William Ernest Hocking (1873–1966) said by 1966 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I hope you feel as I do that it wouldn't be that hard for the United States to have two friends. You know, to have only one good friend seems like the dark side of junior high school. Every time President Obama or any president says, "Israel, you are our enduring friend forever," I think, Okay that's fine, but couldn't you have two friends? What about, "Palestine, you are our friend too." Why not?”
Naomi Shihab Nye (born 1952) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 2013 NSK Neustadt Prize Lecture
“In Aryans' Discipline, to build a friendship is to build wealth, to maintain a friendship is to maintain wealth and to end a friendship is to end wealth.”
Gautama Buddha (501–501 BC) said by 501 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The main aspect of these Churches of ours in North Africa is dialogue and encounter with the Muslims who are our neighbours. To create bonds of friendship, of encounter, of love, in the variety of who we are, making friendships. Because we can talk and appreciate each other based on that friendship. I believe that friendship is at the base of all interreligious dialogue.”
Mario León Dorado (born 1974) first seen 2022 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Apostolic Prefect of Western Sahara: “Foucauld is our inspiration. We are the presence of Christ in the Muslim world” (28 Novembr 2022) Aid to the Church in Need
“True friendship implies full confidence, which may only be completely given or completely withdrawn. If friendship has continually to be analyzed, nursed, and cured, it will cause more anguish than love itself, without having love's strength and its remedies. And if this confidence is ill-placed? Well — I would rather be betrayed by a false friend than deceive a true one.”
André Maurois (1885–1967) said by 1967 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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 (1778–1830) first seen 1822 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On The Conduct of Life" (1822), reprinted in The Collected Works of William Hazlitt (1902-1904)
“Anyone who has experienced disastrous friendships and endured treachery from friends, values a friendship that develops on the basis of trust, honesty and confidence. Reservation, apprehension and wariness do not breed true friendship. (p182)”
Fadwa Tuqan (1917–2003) said by 2003 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“While friendship itself has an air of eternity about it, seeming to transcend all natural limits, there is hardly any emotion so utterly at the mercy of time. We form friendships, and grow out of them. It might almost be said that we cannot retain the faculty of friendship unless we are continually making new friends.”
Robert Hugh Benson (1871–1914) said by 1914 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Anacharsis coming to Athens, knocked at Solon's door, and told him that he, being a stranger, was come to be his guest, and contract a friendship with him; and Solon replying, "It is better to make friends at home," Anacharsis replied, "Then you that are at home make friendship with me.”
Plutarch (40–120) said by 120 at the latest bartlett, Public domain source
“Everyone tries to frighten you now by saying or writing that if one does not become a communist or have a Marxian viewpoint one will have no friends and be alone. They seem to think that to be alone is something dreadful; or that to not have friends is to be hated. I would rather have one honest friend than most of the friends that I have known.”
Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) first seen 1934 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Ivan Kashkin, 19 August 1935, The Letters of Ernest Hemingway, Volume 6, 1934-1936, Edited by Sandra Spanier, Verna Kale & Miriam B. Mandel, Cambridge University Press, 2024, p. 333
“Sometimes," I said, "it seems to me that a friend might not take such pleasure in making fun of me as you do." "Dear Odd! If one's friends do not openly laugh at him, they are not, in fact, his friends. How else would one learn to avoid saying those things that would elicit laughter from strangers? The mockery of friends is affectionate, and inoculates against foolishness.”
Dean Koontz (born 1945) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Since I learned the truth in Mecca, my dearest friends have come to include all kinds — some Christians, Jews, Buddhists, Hindus, agnostics, and even atheists! I have friends who are called capitalists, Socialists, and Communists! Some of my friends are moderates, conservatives, extremists — some are even Uncle Toms! My friends today are black, brown, red, yellow, and white!”
Malcolm X (1925–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Your dad has no friends. If you think your dad has friends, you're wrong. Your mom has friends, and they have husbands. Those are not your dad's friends.”
John Mulaney (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In the world you have three sorts of friends: your friends who love you, your friends who do not care about you and your friends who hate you.”
Nicolas Chamfort (attributed) first seen 1859 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Proverbs of all nations. (1859)
“The qualities of your friends will be those of your enemies; cold friends, cold enemies—half friends, half enemies—fervid enemies, warm friends.”
Johann Kaspar Lavater (attributed) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Indonesia accepted me as a true friend, so I will never forget that. Indonesia is a neighbour, we share the same roots and have a good friendship. It (Indonesia) was also a true friend at a time when I was cast out and sidelined.”
Anwar Ibrahim (born 1947) first seen 2023 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Anwar Ibrahim (2023) cited in: "Can Anwar leverage on friendships to attract investments?" in Free Malaysia Today, 28 January 2023.
“Essential honour must be in a friend, Not such as every breath fans to and fro; But born within, is its own judge and end, And dares not sin, though sure that none should know. Where friendship's spoke, honesty's understood; For none can be a friend that is not good.”
Katherine Philips (1632–1664) said by 1664 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One who does not allow discord [with the wife] to happen even for a minute is considered a [true] husband. Look after this relationship in the same way that you would not allow the relationship with a friend to spoil. If you do not look after your relationship with your friend, then the friendship will break. (Quote Number: #147)”
Dada Bhagwan (1908–1988) said by 1988 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If our friends do us a service, we think they owe it to us by their title of friend. We never think that they do not owe us their friendship.”
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues (1715–1747) said by 1747 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Tr. E. Lee (1903) p. 175
“A vice in common can be the ground of a friendship but not a virtue in common. X and Y may be friends because they are both drunkards or womanizers but, if they are both sober and chaste, they are friends for some other reason.”
W. H. Auden (1907–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friends are not primarily absorbed in each other. It is when we are doing things together that friendship springs up – painting, sailing ships, praying, philosophizing, fighting shoulder to shoulder. Friends look in the same direction. Lovers look at each other — that is, in opposite directions. To transfer bodily all that belongs to one relationship into the other is blundering.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“God grant you, friends, a helping hand— In cares of state and private plights, In rowdy feasts of friendship's band, In passion's sweet and secret rites! God grant you, friends, a helping hand— In daily woes and days of strife, On vacant sa, in distant land, In every black abyss of life!”
Aleksandr Pushkin (1799–1837) first seen 1827 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Pushkin, 19 October 1827. as quoted in Pushkin, Alexander (2009). Selected Lyric Poetry. Northwestern University Press, p. 121.
“[On her fallout with Abhishek Bachchan] The truth is if someone chooses not to invite you to their wedding you realize where you stand with that person. You may be deluded and think you are friends but maybe that friendship was only extended as co-stars on the sets. It doesn't matter. It became very clear to me that we were only co-stars not friends.”
Rani Mukerji (born 1978) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“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.”
Abd al-Karim Qasim (1914–1963) first seen 1959 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech delivered at the officers' club (June 16, 1959).
“Friend after friend departs; Who hath not lost a friend? There is no union here of hearts That finds not here an end.”
James Montgomery (poet) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Also quoted by: James Montgomery
“I think you look on death as your friend,” she murmured. “That is a strange friend for a young man to have.” “The only faithful friend in this world,” he said. “Death is always sure to be at your side.”
Poul Anderson (1926–2001) said by 2001 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Adults can't expect to cosy up to an activist movement that regularly calls for a friend's assassination, then assert their right to the former friend's love, as though the friend was in fact their mother.”
J. K. Rowling (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Ever make fun of someone so much that you feel you should thank them for all the good times you've had? I've got a midget friend, an albino friend, and another friend who thinks "Lord of the Rings" is real. Together we call ourselves "the Unfuckables.”
Dave Attell (born 1965) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Mrs. Parker Bowles is a great friend of mine...a friend for a very long time. She will continue to be a friend for a long time.”
Charles III (born 1948) first seen 1994 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: When asked about his relationship with Camilla during his interview with journalist Jonathan Dimbleby in 1994.
“I desire so to conduct the affairs of this administration that if at the end, when I come to lay down the reins of power, I have lost every other friend on earth, I shall at least have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside of me.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) first seen 1864 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Reply to Missouri Committee of Seventy (30 September 1864)
“A true friend can be a blood or legal relation. They can be in the same clique or neighborhood or workplace. They can belong to the same racial, cultural, religious, or national group. But a true “friend” asks the right questions about category itself, and thereby transcends it. A true friend has the conversation.”
Sarah Schulman (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Do what you want to within reason but remember, take your time: nothing stops for those who can't afford to wait. The best advice that I can give you is to hold on to your head and as long as you are good and kind you'll always be a friend of mine. And it's true to say that a good friend is hard to find But I'd like to think that you are a friend of mine.”
Gilbert O'Sullivan (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Be discreet, remember your best friend may have a best friend who is not your own best friend.”
Olajumoke Adenowo (born 1968) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My real friend was my first wife. I could share everything with her without exception. That's how it came together that she became both a wife and a friend. A friend in the full sense of the word happens once in a lifetime or does not happen at all.”
Dmitry Yazov (1923–2020) first seen 2013 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Дмитрий Язов рассказал "РГ" о жизни маршала на пенсии" (4 December 2013)
“See, dear friend, what I write to you and tell you | and how happy I am | to be here right now | see, see, see, see, | you see, dear friend, what must be invented | to be able to laugh about it | to continue to hope. | And if this year passed in an instant, | see my friend, | how it becomes important | that in this moment I too am there. (from The Year to Come, side B, n. 5)”
Lucio Dalla (1943–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A physician is guilty of no wrong in calling his friend's sickness by its real name, and prescribing for him the best remedies whether palatable or not: should he act otherwise, he is not a true friend. I am your friend, God knows.”
Francis Xavier Weninger (1805–1888) first seen 1864 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Protestantism and infidelity (1864)
“Socrates is our friend, and Plato is our friend; but the truth is even more our friend.”
Guy de Chauliac (1300–1368) said by 1368 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Inventarium sive chirurgia magna (1480), ch. 1, as quoted in Charles Scott Sherrington, Man On His Nature (Cambridge University Press, 1940), p. 63
“Between men and women there is no friendship possible. There is passion, enmity, worship, love, but no friendship.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like; Friendship is a sheltering tree; Oh the joys that came down shower-like, Of friendship, love, and liberty, Ere I was old!”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) first seen 1823 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Youth and Age", st. 2 (1823–1832)
“Friendship may, and often does, grow into love, but love never subsides into friendship.”
Lord Byron (1788–1824) said by 1824 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Quoted by Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington in Conversations of Lord Byron with the Countess of Blessington (1834).
“Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship—never.”
Charles Caleb Colton (1777–1832) said by 1832 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship's the wine of life; but friendship new (Not such was his) is neither strong nor pure.”
Edward Young (1683–1765) said by 1765 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Friendship arises out of mere companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”
C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) said by 1963 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Their friendship was at an end, it seemed to him. The evil time when he had lived on Ravelston had spoiled everything. Charity kills friendship.”
George Orwell (1903–1950) said by 1950 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We should wipe two words from our vocabulary: gratitude and charity. In real life, help is given out of friendship, or it is not valued; it is received from the hand of friendship, or it is resented.”
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) said by 1894 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One day, Ananda, who had been thinking deeply about things for a while, turned to the Buddha and exclaimed: "Lord, I've been thinking - spiritual friendship is at least half of the spiritual life!" The Buddha replied: "Say not so, Ananda, say not so. Spiritual friendship is the whole of the spiritual life!”
Gautama Buddha (501–501 BC) said by 501 BC at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Our trouble is that we have ignored and thus feel insecure in the enormous spectrum of love which lies between rather formal friendship and genital sexuality, and thus are always afraid that once we overstep the bounds of formal friendship we must slide inevitably to the extreme of sexual promiscuity.”
Alan Watts (1915–1973) said by 1973 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source