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Quotes about friendship

200 quotes from 127 people

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The best friend is he that, when he wishes a person’s good, wishes it for that person’s own sake.
Aristotle384–322 BCNicomachean Ethics, Book IX, 1168b.1
I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.
Nelson Mandela1918–2013Unpublished autobiographical manuscript (1975)
The highest compact we can make with our fellow, is, — “Let there be truth between us two forevermore”.
Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882The Conduct of Life (1860), Behavior
- Truth & Lies
Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.
Sydney Smith1771–1845Lady Holland’s Memoir (1855), Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 307
- Comedy
When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition.
Aristotle384–322 BCNicomachean Ethics, Book VIII, 1155a.26
- Justice
My true friends have always given me that supreme proof of devotion, a spontaneous aversion for the man I loved.
Colette1873–1954Break of Day (1928)
- Love
For there is a fellowship more quiet even than solitude, and which, rightly understood, is solitude made perfect.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes (1878).
I had grown tired of standing in the lean and lonely front line facing the greatest enemy that ever confronted man — public opinion.
Clarence Darrow1857–1938The Story of My Life (1932), Ch. 27 “The Loeb-Leopold Tragedy”, p. 232
- Enemies
I hate the idea of causes, and if I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.
E. M. Forster1879–1970What I Believe (1938)
- Patriotism
So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894“Lay Morals” Ch. 4, in Lay Morals and Other Essays (1911).
- Love
The absence of old friends one can endure with equanimity. But even a momentary separation from anyone to whom one has just been introduced is almost unbearable.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900The Importance of Being Earnest (1895), Act IIIn context
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence, is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of this weary pilgrimage.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784March 20, 1782
Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent’s fate.
Sun Tzu544–496 BCThe Art of War, Chapter VI · Weaknesses and Strengths
- Enemies
- War & Peace
It is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive manifestations of their aggressiveness.
Sigmund Freud1856–1939Civilization and Its Discontents (1929), Ch. 5, as translated by James Strachey and Anna Freud (1961)
- Enemies
- Love
Perhaps travel cannot prevent bigotry, but by demonstrating that all peoples cry, laugh, eat, worry, and die, it can introduce the idea that if we try and understand each other, we may even become friends.
Maya Angelou1928–2014Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now (1993) p. 12.