No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.
- Charles DickensFriendship
Aristotle gave friendship two books of the Nicomachean Ethics, more than he gave justice, and distinguished three kinds: friendship for use, for pleasure, and for the friend's own sake. The first two last as long as the reason lasts; the third is rare and slow, and the only one he considered complete.
That threefold division explains why quotes about friendship often sound severe. They do not celebrate company so much as the test — what remains once the usefulness is gone. Cicero wrote a whole treatise on it after losing his closest friend, and his conclusion is uncomfortably simple: a single life contains very few real friendships, and that is fine.
A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.
- Elbert HubbardAssociate with people who are likely to improve you.
- SenecaA friend is, as it were, a second self.
- CiceroIf you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.
- Booker T. WashingtonCorrection does much, but encouragement does more.
- Johann Wolfgang von GoetheAppreciation is a wonderful thing: it makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.
- VoltaireThe best way to cheer yourself up is to try to cheer somebody else up.
- Mark TwainGive every man thy ear, but few thy voice.
- William ShakespeareKind words do not cost much. Yet they accomplish much.
- Blaise PascalA friend is known in times of trouble.
- Croatian ProverbThe only way to have a friend is to be one.
- Ralph Waldo EmersonIf you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
- African ProverbComing together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.
- Henry FordHowever rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.
- François de La RochefoucauldTry to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.
- Maya AngelouWherever there is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.
- SenecaAlone we can do so little; together we can do so much.
- Helen KellerNo act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.
- AesopWe have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say.
- Zeno of CitiumUnited we stand, divided we fall.
- AesopWhat do we live for, if it is not to make life less difficult for each other?
- George EliotQuarrels would not last long if the fault were only on one side.
- François de La RochefoucauldFriendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.
- AristotleWhoever is happy will make others happy too.
- Anne FrankYour friend is your needs answered.
- Kahlil Gibran