Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Friendship
Great souls by instinct to each other turn,
Demand alliance, and in friendship burn.
Addison—The Campaign. L. 102.
The friendships of the world are oft
Confederacies in vice, or leagues of pleasure;
Ours has severest virtue for its basis,
And such a friendship ends not but with life.
Addison—Cato. Act III. Sc. 1.
The friendship between me and you I will not compare to a chain; for that the rains might rust, or the falling tree might break.
Bancroft—History of the United States. Wm. Penn’s Treaty with the Indians.
Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul,
Sweet’ner of life, and solder of society.
Blair—The Grave. L. 87.
Hand
Grasps at hand, eye lights eye in good friendship,
And great hearts expand
And grow one in the sense of this world’s life.
Robert Browning—Saul. St. 7.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne?
Burns—Auld Lang Syne. Burns refers to these words as an old folk song. Early version in James Watson’s Collection of Scottish Songs. (1711).
Should old acquaintance be forgot,
And never thought upon.
From an old poem by Robert Ayton of Kincaldie.
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
Though they return with scars.
Allan Ramsay’s Version. See his Tea-Table Miscellany. (1724). Transferred after to Johnson’s Musical Museum. See S. J. A. Fitzgerald’s Stories of Famous Songs.
Friendship is Love without his wings!
Byron—L’Amitié est l’Amour sans Ailes. St. 1.
In friendship I early was taught to believe;
******
I have found that a friend may profess, yet deceive.
Byron—Lines addressed to the Rev. J. T. Becher. St. 7.
Oh, how you wrong our friendship, valiant youth.
With friends there is not such a word as debt:
Where amity is ty’d with band of truth,
All benefits are there in common set.
Lady Carew—Marian.
Secundas res splendidiores facit amicitia, et adversas partiens communicansque leviores.
Friendship makes prosperity brighter, while it lightens adversity by sharing its griefs and anxieties.
Cicero—De Amicitia. VI.
Vulgo dicitur multos modios salis simul edendos esse, ut amicitia munus expletum sit.
It is a common saying that many pecks of salt must be eaten before the duties of friendship can be discharged.
Cicero—De Amicitia. XIX.
Friendship is a sheltering tree.
Coleridge—Youth and Age.
Then come the wild weather, come sleet or come snow,
We will stand by each other, however it blow.
Simon Dach—Annie of Tharaw. Longfellow’s trans. L. 7.
What is the odds so long as the fire of souls is kindled at the taper of conwiviality, and the wing of friendship never moults a feather?
Dickens—Old Curiosity Shop. Ch. II.
Fan the sinking flame of hilarity with the wing of friendship; and pass the rosy wine.
Dickens—Old Curiosity Shop. Ch. VII.
For friendship, of itself a holy tie,
Is made more sacred by adversity.
Dryden—The Hind and the Panther. Pt. III. L. 47.
Friendships begin with liking or gratitude—roots that can be pulled up.
George Eliot—Daniel Deronda. Bk. IV. Ch. XXXII.
So, if I live or die to serve my friend,
’Tis for my love—’tis for my friend alone,
And not for any rate that friendship bears
In heaven or on earth.
George Eliot—Spanish Gypsy.
Friendship should be surrounded with ceremonies and respects, and not crushed into corners. Friendship requires more time than poor, busy men can usually command.
Emerson—Essays. Behavior.
The highest compact we can make with our fellow is,—Let there be truth between us two forevermore.***It is sublime to feel and say of another, I need never meet, or speak, or write to him; we need not reinforce ourselves or send tokens of remembrance; I rely on him as on myself; if he did thus or thus, I know it was right.
Emerson—Essays. Behavior.
I hate the prostitution of the name of friendship to signify modish and worldly alliances.
Emerson—Essays. Of Friendship.
The condition which high friendship demands is ability to do without it.
Emerson—Essays. Of Friendship.
There can never be deep peace between two spirits, never mutual respect, until, in their dialogue, each stands for the whole world.
Emerson—Essays. Of Friendship.
A sudden thought strikes me—Let us swear an eternal friendship.
John H. Frere—The Rovers. Act I.
Friendship, like love, is but a name,
Unless to one you stint the flame.
Gay—The Hare with Many Friends.
To friendship every burden’s light.
Gay—The Hare with Many Friends.
Who friendship with a knave hath made,
Is judg’d a partner in the trade.
Gay—Old Woman and Her Cats.
And what is friendship but a name,
A charm that lulls to sleep;
A shade that follows wealth or fame,
And leaves the wretch to weep?
Goldsmith—Edwin and Angelina, or The Hermit. St. 19.
Friendship closes its eye, rather than see the moon eclipst; while malice denies that it is ever at the full.
J. C. and A. W. Hare—Guesses at Truth.
Friendship is Love, without either flowers or veil.
J. C. and A. W. Hare—Guesses at Truth.
Fast as the rolling seasons bring
The hour of fate to those we love,
Each pearl that leaves the broken string
Is set in Friendship’s crown above.
As narrower grows the earthly chain,
The circle widens in the sky;
These are our treasures that remain,
But those are stars that beam on high.
Holmes—Songs of Many Seasons. Our Classmate, F. W. C., 1864.
A generous friendship no cold medium knows,
Burns with one love, with one resentment glows;
One should our interests and our passions be,
My friend must hate the man that injures me.
Homer—Iliad. Bk. IX. L. 725. Pope’s trans.
If a man does not make new acquaintances, as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.
Samuel Johnson—Boswell’s Life. (1755).
Friendship, peculiar boon of Heaven,
The noble mind’s delight and pride,
To men and angels only given,
To all the lower world denied.
Samuel Johnson—Friendship. An Ode.
The endearing elegance of female friendship.
Samuel Johnson—Rasselas. Ch. XLVI.
In Friendship we only see those faults which may be prejudicial to our friends. In love we see no faults but those by which we suffer ourselves.
La Bruyère—Characters or Manners of the Present Age. Ch. V.
Love and friendship exclude each other.
La Bruyère—Characters or Manners of the Present Age. Ch. V.
Pure friendship is something which men of an inferior intellect can never taste.
La Bruyère—Characters or Manners of the Present Age. Ch. V.
Come back! ye friendships long departed!
That like o’erflowing streamlets started,
And now are dwindled, one by one,
To stony channels in the sun!
Come back! ye friends, whose lives are ended,
Come back, with all that light attended,
Which seemed to darken and decay
When ye arose and went away!
Longfellow—Christus. Pt. II. The Golden Legend. I.
“You will forgive me, I hope, for the sake of the friendship between us,
Which is too true and too sacred to be so easily broken!”
Longfellow—The Courtship of Miles Standish. Priscilla. Pt. VI. L. 22.
Nulla fides regni sociis omnisque potestas
Impatiens consortis erit.
There is no friendship between those associated in power; he who rules will always be impatient of an associate.
Lucan—Pharsalia. I. 92.
My fair one, let us swear an eternal friendship.
Molière—Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme. Act IV. Sc. 1.
Oh, call it by some better name,
For Friendship sounds too cold.
Moore—Oh, call it by some better Name.
Forsooth, brethren, fellowship is heaven and lack of fellowship is hell; fellowship is life and lack of fellowship is death; and the deeds that ye do upon the earth, it is for fellowship’s sake that ye do them.
William Morris—Dream of John Ball. Ch. IV.
Vulgus amicitias utilitate probat.
The vulgar herd estimate friendship by its advantages.
Ovid—Epistolæ Ex Ponto. II. 3. 8.
Scilicet ut fulvum spectatur in ignibus aurum
Tempore in duro est inspicienda fides.
As the yellow gold is tried in fire, so the faith of friendship must be seen in adversity.
Ovid—Tristium. I. 5. 25.
Quod tuum’st meum’st; omne meum est autem tuum.
What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine.
Plautus—Trinummus. II. 2. 47.
What ill-starr’d rage
Divides a friendship long confirm’d by age?
Pope—Dunciad. Bk. III. L. 173.
There is nothing that is meritorious but virtue and friendship; and indeed friendship itself is only a part of virtue.
Pope—Johnson’s Lives of the Poets; Life of Pope.
Idem velle et idem nolle ea demum firma amicitia est.
To desire the same things and to reject the same things, constitutes true friendship.
Sallust—Catilina. XX. From Cataline’s Oration to his Associates.
Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided.
II Samuel. I. 23.
Amicitia semper prodest, amor etiam aliquando nocet.
Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures.
Seneca—Epistolæ Ad Lucilium. XXXV.
Most friendship is feigning.
As You Like It. Song. Act II. Sc. 7. L. 181.
Out upon this half-fac’d fellowship!
Henry IV. Pt. I. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 208.
Call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing! give me them that will face me.
Henry IV. Pt. I. Act II. Sc. 4. L. 165.
When did friendship take
A breed for barren metal of his friend?
Merchant of Venice. Act I. Sc. 3. L. 134.
Friendship is constant in all other things,
Save in the office and affairs of love:
Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself,
And trust no agent.
Much Ado About Nothing. Act II. Sc. 1. L. 182.
Friendship’s full of dregs.
Timon of Athens. Act I. Sc. 2. L. 240.
The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie.
Troilus and Cressida. Act II. Sc. 3. L. 110.
Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship.
Sydney Smith—Lady Holland’s Memoir. P. 257. Let us swear an eternal friendship. Poetry of the Anti-Jacobin. The Rovers.
Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love, and to be loved, is the greatest happiness of existence.
Sydney Smith—Of Friendship. Lady Holland’s Memoir.
I thought you and he were hand-in-glove.
Swift—Polite Conversation. Dialogue II.
Friendship is like rivers, and the strand of seas, and the air, common to all the world; but tyrants, and evil customs, wars, and want of love, have made them proper and peculiar.
Jeremy Taylor—A Discourse of the Nature, Measures, and Offices of Friendship.
Nature and religion are the bands of friendship, excellence and usefulness are its great endearments.
Jeremy Taylor—A Discourse of the Nature, Measures, and Offices of Friendship.
Some friendships are made by nature, some by contract, some by interest, and some by souls.
Jeremy Taylor—A Discourse of the Nature, Measures, and Offices of Friendship.
O friendship, equal-poised control,
O heart, with kindliest motion warm,
O sacred essence, other form,
O solemn ghost, O crowned soul!
Tennyson—In Memoriam. LXXXV.
True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity, before it is entitled to the appellation.
George Washington—Social Maxims. Friendship.
Friendship’s the wine of life: but friendship new***is neither strong nor pure.
Young—Night Thoughts. Night II. L. 582.