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Part 25

For Auld Lang Syne: a Book of Friendship · Ray [Compiler] Woodward — chapter 25 of 33 · ~376 words · public domain

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True friendships are eternal.

--Cicero.

That two men may be real friends, they must have opposite opinions, similar principles, and different loves and hatreds.

--Chateaubriand.

There are very few friends with whom one can be intimate on all subjects. Discover the range of your intimacy with each friend and never go beyond it.

--J. A. Spender.

* * * * *

Two persons will not be friends long if they cannot forgive each other's little failings.

--La Bruyere.

There is this important difference between love and friendship: while the former delights in extremes and opposites, the latter demands equalities.

--Mme. de Maintenon.

There is no folly equal to that of throwing away friendship, in a world were friendship is so rare.

--Bulwer-Lytton.

The very ground and gist of a noble friendship is the cultivation in common of the personal inner lives of those who partake in it, their mutual reflection of souls and joint sharing of experience inciting them to a constant betterment of their being and their happiness.

* * * * *

Think of the importance of friendship in the education of men. It will make a man honest; it will make him a hero; it will make him a saint. It is the state of the just dealing with the just, the magnanimous with the magnanimous, the sincere with the sincere, man with man.

--Thoreau.

There are two elements that go to the composition of friendship--truth and tenderness.

--Emerson.

There are a thousand nameless ties, Which only such as feel them know; Of kindred thoughts, deep sympathies, And untold fancy spells, which throw O'er ardent minds and faithful hearts A chain whose charmed links so blend, That the light circlet but imparts Its force in these fond words, My friend.

--Mrs. Dinnies.

* * * * *

We talk of choosing our friends, but friends are self-elected.

--Emerson.

Wanting to have a friend is altogether different from wanting to be a friend. The former is a mere natural human craving, the latter is the life of Christ in the soul.

--J. R. Hitter.

Whoever undertakes a friend's great part, Should be renewed in nature, pure in heart, Prepared for martyrdom, and strong to prove A thousand ways the force of genuine love.

--Cowper.

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