What makes a friend? The heart that glows Volney Streamer With changeless love in Arctic snows, Nor fails to cheer 'mid desert sand. This plainer speaks than clasp of hand: Frederic Denison Have you not met with some men who very rarely spoke about their own impres- Maurice sions and thoughts, who seldom laid down the law, and yet you were sure had a fund of wisdom within, and who made you partakers of it by the light which they threw on the earth in which they were dwelling, especially by the kindly, humorous, pathetic way in which they interested you about your fellowmen, and made you acquainted with them? I do not say that this is the only class of friends which one would wish for. One likes to have some who in quiet moments are more directly communicative about their own sufferings and struggles. But certainly you would not say that men of the other class are not very pleasant and very profitable. I love a friendship free and frank. True friendship cannot be among many. The essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanimity and trust. It must not surmise or provide for infirmity. It treats its object as a god, that it may deify both. John Byrom Norris Emerson Emerson Perry Marshall Stephen William Anthony John Daniel son of John Wade William Penn in "Fruits of Soli tude" The laws of friendship are great, austere, and eternal, of one web with the laws of nature and of morals. Think it not friendship which forever seeks itself; but that which gives itself for others. Beautiful friendship, tried by sun and wind, It is well that there is no one without a fault, for he would not have a friend in the world. I declare that I have always limited my expectation of attachments entirely disinterested. Are there any? Who cherishes a friend from whom there is neither profit nor pleasure to be had? Or, at any rate, from whom neither has been had? "T is thus in friendship; who depend Whoever heard him utter an ill-natured word respecting anyone, living or dead? Where was there a kinder friend or better neighbor? Now, above all things, where was his equal as a companion, A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably. Friendship should be surrounded with ceremonies and respect, and not crushed into corners. Friendship requires more time than poor busy man can usually command. True happiness Consists not in the multitude of friends, To say that a man is your friend, means commonly no more than this, that he is not your enemy. Most contemplate only what would be the accidental and trifling advantages of friendship, as that the friend can assist in time of need, by his substance, or his influence, or his counsel; but he who foresees such advantage in this relation proves himself blind to its real advantage, or indeed wholly inexperienced in the relation itself. I loved my friend for his gentleness, his candor, his good repute, his freedom even from my own livelier manner, his calm and reasonable kindness. It was not any particular talent that attracted me to him, or anything striking whatsoever. I should say in one word, it was his goodness. A true test of friendship, to sit or walk with a friend for an hour in perfect silence without wearying of one another's company. Ralph Ben Henry Thoreau Leigh Hunt Dinah Lord Avebury Cicero "On Friend ship" Sir Philip Jonathan Ralph Waldo Emerson Oliver Marble Gale Francis Alexander Pope Ouida It is not enough to love those who are near and dear to us. We must show them that we do so. In friendship there is nothing pretended, nothing feigned, whatever there is in it is. both genuine and spontaneous. Everything that is mine, even to my life, I may give to one I love, but the secret of my friend is not mine to give. True friendship in two breasts requires I wish that friendship should have feet, as well as eyes and eloquence. In must plant itself on the ground, before it walks over the moon. I wish it to be a little of a citizen, before it is quite a cherub. If gratitude means a lively sense of future favors, friendship signifies a lively sense of past favors, mutually conferred. A crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love. A generous friendship no cold medium knows, We must not expect our friends to be above humanity. 1 t I do not treat friendships daintily, but with roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest thing we know. All men have their frailties, and whoever Nay, my lords, ceremony was but devised at first none. If you would be loved as a companion, avoid unnecessary criticism. If I could choose a young man's com- Friendship's true laws are by this rule exprest, Let no man think he is loved by any man when he loves no man. Emerson Cyrus Shakes peare in "Timon of Athens" Sir Helps Alexander Pope Epictetus |