“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“It is easier to forgive an Enemy than to forgive a Friend.”
— William Blake Primary source“We must be our own [friend] before we can be another’s.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“For every friend whom he loses for truth, he gains a better.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.”
— John F. Kennedy Primary source“Half Friendship is the bitterest Enmity”
— William Blake Primary source“Lend money to an enemy, and thou’lt gain him, to a friend and thou’lt lose him.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Happy is the house that shelters a friend!”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Tart words make no friends; a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than a gallon of vinegar.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“A false friend and a shadow attend only while the sun shines.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Have you felt it, too? Have you seen how your best friends love everything about you—except the things that count? And your most important is nothing to them, nothing, not even a sound they can recognize.”
— Ayn Rand Primary source“The essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanimity and trust.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“We talk of choosing our friends, but friends are self-elected.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“Do good to thy friend to keep him, to thy enemy to gain him.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Promises may get thee friends, but non-performance will turn them into enemies.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“I am a biography nut myself. And I think when you’re trying to teach the great concepts that work, it helps to tie them into the lives and personalities of the people who developed them. I think you learn economics better if you make Adam Smith your friend. That sounds funny, making friends among the eminent dead, but if you go through life making friends with the eminent dead who had the right ideas, I think it will work better for you in life and work better in education. It’s way better than just giving the basic concepts.”
— Charlie Munger Primary source“It is better to be alone than in bad company.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson Primary source“To be intimate with a foolish friend, is like going to bed with a razor.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“Reprove your friend in secret and praise him openly.”
— Leonardo da Vinci Primary source“Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.”
— Benjamin Franklin Primary source“I don’t want to be your friend, baby. I am your friend.”
— Ernest Hemingway Primary source“Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”
— Eleanor Roosevelt DisputedEnemies Honesty Solitude Relationships Praise