He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare,

And he who has one enemy will meet him everywhere.

Ali ibn-Abi-Talib (602 AD - 661 AD), A Hundred Sayings

Misfortune shows those who are not really friends.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Eudemian Ethics¹

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC), Nichomachean Ethics

A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling.

Arthur Brisbane, "The Book of Today"

The meeting of two personalities² is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.

Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)

Friendship make prosperity more shining and lessens³ adversity by dividing and sharing it.

Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), On Friendship, 44 B.C.

The shifts of Fortune test the reliability⁴ of friends.

Cicero (106 BC - 43 BC), De Amicitia

It is wise to apply the oil of refined politeness to the mechanisms⁵ of friendship.

Colette (1873 - 1954), The Pure and the Impure⁶, 1932

Being friendless taught me how to be a friend. Funny how that works.

Colleen Wainwright, Communicatrix, 11-09-07

Have no friends not equal to yourself.

Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC), The Confucian Analects

Do not protect yourself by a fence, but rather by your friends.

Czech Proverb

You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.

Dale Carnegie

My mother used to say that there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet. She's now in a maximum security twilight⁷ home in Australia.

Dame⁸ Edna Everage (1934 - )

Friends were like clothes: fine while they lasted but eventually they wore thin or you grew out of them.

David Nicholls, One Day, 2010

You're supposed to trust friends. You have no reason to be his friend? That is part of the pleasure of friendship: trusting without absolute evidence and then being rewarded for that trust.

David Shore, House M.D., Not Cancer, 2008

Never explain--your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

Elbert Hubbard (1856 - 1915)

Nothing changes your opinion of a friend so surely as success - yours or his.

Franklin P. Jones, Saturday Evening Post, November 29, 1953

Be courteous⁹ to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation¹⁰.

George Washington (1732 - 1799)

Nobody sees a flower - really - it is so small it takes time - we haven't time - and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time.

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887 - 1986)

All people want is someone to listen.

Hugh Elliott, Standing¹¹ Room Only weblog, May 8, 2003

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs¹² of disappointed love.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Northanger Abbey

Good company requires only birth, education, and manners, and with regard to education is not very nice. Birth and good manners are essential; but a little learning is by no means a dangerous thing in good company; on the contrary, it will do very well.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Persuasion¹³, 1818

Here and there, human nature may be great in times of trial; but generally speaking, it is its weakness and not its strength that appears in a sick chamber¹⁴: it is selfishness and impatience¹⁵ rather than generosity¹⁶ and fortitude¹⁷, that one hears of. There is so little real friendship in the world! and unfortunately, there are so many who forget to think seriously till it is almost too late.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Persuasion, 1818

My idea of good company is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Persuasion, 1818

She felt that she could so much more depend upon the sincerity¹⁸ of those who sometimes looked or said a careless or a hasty thing, than of those whose presence of mind never varied¹⁹, whose tongue never slipped.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Persuasion, 1818

To flatter and follow others, without being flattered and followed in turn, is but a state of half enjoyment²⁰.

Jane Austen (1775 - 1817), Persuasion, 1818

When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.

Japanese Proverb

Go through your phone book, call people and ask them to drive you to the airport. The ones who will drive you are your true friends. The rest aren't bad people; they're just acquaintances.

Jay Leno (1950 - )

In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.

John Churton Collins

The thing about chameleoning your way through life is that it gets to where nothing is real.

John Green, An Abundance of Katherines, 2008