For Auld Lang Syne. A Book оf Friendship.
It is a noble and great thing to cover the blemishes and to excuse the failings of a friend; to draw a curtain before his stains, and to display his perfections; to bury his weaknesses in silence, but to proclaim his virtues upon the housetop.
South.
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E'en as a traveller, meeting with the shade
Of some o'erhanging tree, awhile reposes,
Then leaves its shelter to pursue his way,
So men meet friends, then part with them forever.
Hitopadesa.
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A true friendship is as wise as it is tender.
Thoreau.
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As ships meet at sea a moment together, when words of greeting must be spoken, and then away upon the deepso men meet in this world; and I think we should cross no man's path without hailing him, and if he needs, giving him supplies.
H. W. Beecher.
* * *
A friend is more necessary than either fire or water.
Proverbs.
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A long novitiate of acquaintance should precede the vows of friendship.
Lord Bolingbroke.
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A beloved friend does not fill one part of the soul, but, penetrating the whole, becomes connected with all feeling.
Channing.
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A reverse of fortune is a mighty sifter of friendship. So is distance. Go a little way out of town, and see how many people will take the trouble to come to see you. Well, we must be patient and forbearing. It is a question of intensity of need. Friendly relations depend upon vicinity amongst other things, and there are degrees; but the best kind of friendship has a way of bridging time and space for all that.
Haweis.
* * *
A female friend, amiable, clever, and devoted, is a possession more valuable than parks and palaces; and without such a muse few men can succeed in life, none be contented.
Lord Beaconsfield.
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A true friend embraces our objects as his own. We feel another mind bent on the same end, enjoying it, ensuring it, reflecting it, and delighting in our devotion to it.
Channing.
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A pretended affection is not easily distinguished from a real one, unless in seasons of distress. For adversity is to friendship what fire is to gold the only infallible test to discover the genuine from the counterfeit. In all other cases they both have the same common marks.
Cicero.
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A little peaceful home bounds all my wants and wishes;
Add to this my book and friendand this is happiness supreme.
Montaigne.
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A true friend is more precious to the soul than all which it inherits beneath the sun.
Irving.
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A friend
Welded into our life is more to us
Than twice five-thousand kinsmen, one in blood.
Euripides.
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A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fullness and swelling of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. No receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession.
Bacon.
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Be true to thy friend. Never speak of his faults to another, to show thy own discrimination; but open them all to him, with candor and true gentleness; forgive all his errors and his sins, be they ever so many; but do not excuse the slightest deviation from rectitude. Never forbear to dissent from a false opinion, or a wrong practice, from mistaken motives of kindness; nor seek thus to have thy own weaknesses sustained; for these things cannot be done without injury to the soul.
Child.
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Be admonished not to strike leagues of friendship with cheap persons, where no friendship can be.
Emerson.
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A day for toil, an hour for sport,
But for a friend life is too short.
Emerson.
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After a certain age a new friend is a wonder. There is the age of blossoms and sweet budding green, the age of generous summer, the autumn when the leaves drop, and then winter shivering and bare.
Thackeray.
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Bitter and unrelenting enemies often deserve better of us than those friends whom we are inclined to regard as pleasant companions; the former often tell us the truth, the latter never.
Cicero.
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Does friendship really go on to be more pain than pleasure? I doubt it, for even in its deepest sorrows there is a joy which makes ordinary pleasure a very poor, meaningless affair.
Unknown.
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Friendship does not spring up and grow great and become perfect all at once, but requires time and the nourishment of thoughts.
Dante.
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Even the utmost good-will and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for friendship, for friends do not live in harmony, merely, as some say, but in melody. We do not wish for friends to feed and clothe our bodies, neighbors are kind enough for that, but to do the like office to our spirits. For this, few are rich enough, however well disposed they may be.
Thoreau.
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A pure friendship inspires, cleanses, expands, and strengthens the soul.
Alger.
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A friend is he that loves, and he that is beloved.
Hobbe.
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Change, care, nor Time while life endure
Shall spoil our ancient friendship sure.
Lang.
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Every young man is the better for cherishing strong friendships with the wise and good; and he whose soul is knit to one or more chosen associates with whom he can sympathize in right aims and feelings, is thereby the better armed against temptation and confirmed in paths of virtue.
Carlyle.
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Believing hear, what you deserve to hear:
Your birthday, as my own, to me is dear.
Blest and distinguished days! Which we should prize
The first, the kindest, bounty of the skies.
But yours gives most; for mine did only lend
Me to the world, yours gave to me a friend.
Martial.
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Choose for your friend him that is wise and good, and secret and just, ingenious and honest, and in those things, which have a latitude, use your own liberty.
Taylor.
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Friendship is made up of esteem and pleasure; pity is composed of sorrow and contempt: the mind may for some time fluctuate between them, but it can never entertain both at once.
Goldsmith.
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Friends are much better tried in bad fortune than in good fortune.
Aristotle.
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Fellowship of souls does not consist in the proximity of persons. There are millions who live in close personal contact dwell under the same roof, board at the same table, and work in the same shop between whose minds there is scarcely a point of contact, whose souls are as far asunder as the poles; whilst, contrariwise, there are those separated by oceans and continents, ay, by the mysterious gulf that divides time from eternity, between whom there is a constant intercourse, a delightful fellowship. In truth, we have often more communion with the distant than the near.
