Adams Henry Brooks 1838-1918

The Education of Henry Adams

A friend in power is a friend lost.

Adams Henry Brooks 1838-1918

The Education of Henry Adams

One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible. Friendship needs a certain parellelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.

Belloc Hilaire 1870-1953

New Cautionary Tales „Peter Goole"

And even now, at twenty-five,
He has to WORK to keep alive!
Yes! All day long from 10 till 4!
For half the year or even more;
With but an hour or two to spend
At luncheon with a city friend.

The Bible (Authorized Version)

Old Testament: Apocrypha Ecclesiasticus ch.6 v.1

A faithful friend is the medicine of life.

Blake William 1757-1827

Songs of Experience „A Poison Tree"

I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

Brummell Beau 1778-1840

(of the Prince of Wales)

Who's your fat friend?

Burns Robert 1759-1796

,,Man was made to Mourn"

O Death! the poor man's dearest friend,
The kindest and the best!

Canning George 1770-1827

Give me the avowed, the erect, and manly foe,
Bold I can meet, perhaps may turn the blow;
But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send,
Save, save, oh save me from the candid friend!

Chekhov Anton 1860-1904

Uncle Vanya

A woman can become a man's friend only in the following stages - first an acquaintance, next a mistress, and only then a friend.

Clare John 1793-1864

„Child Harold"

Hopeless hope hopes on and meets no end,
Wastes without springs and homes without a friend.

Clinton Bill (William Jefferson) 1946-

The urgent question of our time is whether we can make change our friend and not our enemy.

Colton Charles Caleb c.1780-1832

Never join with your friend when he abuses his horse or his wife unless the one is to be sold, and the other to be buried.

Conrad Joseph 1857-1924

Action is consolatory. It is the enemy of thought and the friend of flattering illusions.

Cummings Fr. Jerome

A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.

Emerson Ralph Waldo 1803-1882

Essays

A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.
Before him I may think aloud.

Emerson Ralph Waldo 1803-1882

Essays

The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only
way to have a friend is to be one.

Emerson Ralph Waldo 1803-1882

A friend may well be reckoned to be a masterpiece of nature.

Flecker James Elroy 1884-1915

To a Poet a Thousand Years Hence
O friend unseen, unborn, unknown,
Student of our sweet English tongue,
Read out my words at night, alone;
I was a poet, I was young.

Forster E.M. 1879-1970

Two cheers for Democracy „What I Believe"

If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.

Gay John 1685-1732

Fables „The Shepherd's Dog and the Wolf"

An open foe may prove a curse,
But a pretended friend is worse.

Gladstone W.E. 1809-1898

We are bound to lose Ireland in consequence of years of cruelty, stupidity and misgovernment and I would rather lose her as a friend than as a foe.

Hines James

A gentle Quaker, hearing a strange noise in his house one night, got up and discovered a burglar busily at work. He went and got his gun, came back and stood quietly in the doorway."Fiend" he said, „I would do thee no harm for the world, but thou standest where I am about to shoot."

Hopkins Anthony 1937-

in The Silence of the Lambs

„I have to go now, Clarice, I'm having an old friend for dinner."

Howe Edgar Watson

If a friend is in trouble, don't annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.

Hubbard Kin 1868-1930

A friend that ain't in need is a friend indeed.

Johnson Samuel 1709-1784

Boswell - Life (on the death of Mr Levett)

Offcious, innocent, sincere,
Of every friendless name the friend.
Yet still he fills affection's eye,
Obscurely wise, and coarsely kind.

La Fontaine Jean de 1621-1695

Fables „Parole de Socrate"

Everyone calls himself a friend, but only a fool relies on it; nothing is commoner than the name, nothing rarer than the thing.

Lincoln Abraham 1809-1865

I desire to so conduct the affairs of this administration that if, at the end ... I have lost every friend on earth, I shall have one friend left, and that friend shall be down inside me.

Milne A.A. 1882-1956

The House at Pooh Corner

„I don't want him,"said Rabbit. „But it's always useful to know where a friend-and-relation is, whether you want him or whether you don't.

Mottoes and Slogans

(advertising slogan)

Access, your flexible fiend.

Newman John Henry, Cardinal 1801-1890

We should ever conduct ourselves towards our enemy as if he were one day to be our friend.

Owen Wilfred 1893-1918

„Strange Meeting"

„Strange friend," I said, „here is no cause to mourn."
„None," said that other, „save the undone years,
The hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours,
Was my life also."

Perkins Anthony 1932-1992

in Psycho

„A boy's best friend is his mother."

Proverbs and Sayings

Arab

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

Robin Leo 1900-

Gentlemen Prefer Blondes „Diamonds..."
Men grow cold as girls grow old
And we all lose our charms in the end.
But square cut or pear shape,
These rocks won't lose their shape,
Diamonds are a girl's best friend.

Roscommon Earl of 1637-1685

Essay on Translated Verse

Choose an author as you choose a friend.

Sargent John Singer 1856-1925

Every time I paint a portrait I lose a friend.

Shakespeare William 1564-1616

Julius Caesar

He was my friend, faithful and just to me:
But Brutus says he was ambitious;
And Brutus is an honourable man.

Shakespeare William 1564-1616

Julius Caesar

A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.

Southey Robert 1774-1843

,,The Lay of the Laureate"

My name is Death: the last best friend am I.

Swift Jonathan 1667-1745

On the Death of Dr Swift

Some great misfortune to portend,
No enemy can match a friend.

Talleyrand Charles Maurice de 1754-1838

(of Mme. de Staël)

She is such a good friend that she would throw all her acquaintances  into the water for the pleasure of fishing them out.

Tennyson Alfred Lord 1809-1892

Idylls of the King „Lancelot and Elaine"

He makes no friend who never made a foe.

Vidal Gore 1925-

Whenever a friend succeeds, a little something in me dies.

friend quotes - friend quotations - quotes about friends