Aristotle 384-322 BC

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

The Bible

New Testament: St John ch.15 v.13

Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

Bulwer-Lytton Edward 1803-1873

In life it is difficult to say who do you the most mischief, enemies with the worst intentions, or friends with the best.

Chagall Marc 1889-1985

All colours are the friends of their neighbours and the lovers of their opposites.

Chesterfield Lord 1694-1773

Many people enjoy the inferiority of their best friends.

Chesterton G.K. 1874-1936

We make our friends; we make our enemies; but God makes our next-door neighbour.

Conrad Joseph 1857-1924

As in political, so in literary action, a man wins friends for himself mostly by the passion of his prejudices.

Dellile Jacques 1738-1813

Chance makes our parents, but choice makes our friends.

Edwards Robert C.

Never exaggerate your faults; your friends will attend to that.

Eliot George 1819-1880

Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms.

Franklin Benjamin 1706-1790

There are three faithful friends: an old wife, and old dog, and ready money.

Gabirol Solomon Ibn c. 1020-1070

The space in a needle's eye is sufficient for two friends, but the whole world is scarcely big enough to hold two enemies.

Goethe Johann von 1749-1832

It is better to be deceived by one's friends than to deceive them.

Harding Warren G. 1865-1923

My God, this is a hell of a job. I have no trouble with my enemies. I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends, my goddamn friends. They're the ones that keep me walking the floor nights.

Hay John 1838-1905

The best-loved man or maid in the town would perish with anguish could they hear all that their friends say in the course of a day.

Hollweg Theobald von Bethmann 1856-1921

Just for a word „neutrality" - a word which in wartime has so often been disregarded - just for a scrap of paper, Great Britain is going to make war on a kindred nation who desires nothing better than to be friends with her.

Homer fl.8th Century BC

A decent boldness ever meets with friends.

Howe Edgar Watson

Abuse a man unjustly, and you will make friends for him.

Hubbard Elbert 1859-1915

The Motto Book

Never explain - your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

Johnson Samuel 1709-1784

Boswell - Life

How few of his friends' houses would a man choose to be at when he is sick.

Joubert Joseph 1754-1824

When my friends lack an eye, I look at them in profile.

La Rochefoucauld François Duc de 1613-1680

Réflexions ou Maximes Morales

In the misfortune of our best friends, we always find somethingwhich is not displeasing to us.

Lear Edward 1812-1888

Nonsense Songs (preface)

He has many friends, laymen and clerical.
Old Foss is the name of his cat:
His body is perfectly spherical,
He weareth a runcible hat.

Lennon John and McCartney Paul 1940-1980 and 1942-

„With a Little Help From My Friends"

Oh I get by with a little help from my friends,
Mm, I get high with a little help from my friends.

Lermontov Mikhail 1814-1841

A Hero of our Time

Of two close friends, one is always the slave of the other.

McLaughlin Mignon

It's important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to friendship that we are not.

Medici Cosimo de 1389-1464

We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.

Milligan Spike

Puckoon

Money couldn't buy friends but you got a better class of enemy.

Moliére 1622-1673

The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.

Montrond Casimir Comte de 1768-1843

(attributed)
If something pleasant happens to you, don't forget to tell it to your friends, to make them feel bad.

Nash Ogden 1902-1971

Senescence begins
And middle age ends,
The day your descendants
Outnumber your friends.

Pitter Ruth 1897-1992

But for Lust
But for lust we could be friends,
On each other's necks could weep:
In each other's arms could sleep
In the calm the cradle lends.

Selden John 1584-1654

Table Talk „Friends"
Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet.

Shakespeare William 1564-1616

As You Like It

He that wants money, means, and content is without three good friends.

Shakespeare William 1564-1616

Julius Caesar

Fiends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears;
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them,
The good is oft interréd with their bones;
So let it be with Caesar.

Shakespeare William 1564-1616

Macbeth

I have lived long enough: my way of life
Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf;
And that which should accompany old age,
As honour, love, obedience, troops of friends,
I must not look to have.

Shakespeare William 1564-1616

Pericles

This world to me is but a ceaseless storm
Whirring me from my friends.

Shelley Percy Bysshe 1792-1822

„Letter to Maria Gisborne"

Have you not heard
When a man marries, dies or turns Hindoo,
His best friends hear no more of him?

Shinwell Emanuel 1884-1986

We know that the organised workers of the country are our friends. As for the rest, they don't matter a tinker's cuss.

Smith Logan Pearsall 1865-1946

Don't tell your friends their social faults; they will cure the fault and never forgive you.

Smith Logan Pearsall 1865-1964

I cannot forgive my friends for dying: I do not find these
vanishing acts of theirs at all amusing.

Smith Logan Pearsall 1865-1964

We need new friends. Some of us are cannibals who have eaten their old friends up; others must have ever-renewed audiences before whom to re-enact an ideal version of their lives.

Tebbit Norman 1931-

It is a mistake to judge people by their friends.
Judge them by their enemies. I am very proud of my enemie.

Terence c.190-159 BC

Of my friends I am the only one I have left.

Thoreau Henry David 1817-1862

How often we find ourselves turning our backs on our actual friends, that we may go and meet their ideal cousins.

Thorpe Jeremy 1929-

(on Macmillan sacking seven of his Cabinet)

Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his friends for his life.

Titus AD 39-81

(on having done nothing to help anybody all day)

Friends, I have lost a day.

Tupper Martin 1810-1889

Proverbial Philosophy „Of Reading"

A good book is the best of friends, the same today and for ever.

Ustinov Sir Peter

Dear Me

I do not believe that friends are necessarily the people you like best, they are merely the people who got there first.

Van Mildert Bishop

Want of friends argues either want of humility or of courage, or both.

Villars Marshall de 1653-1734

God save me from my friends - I can protect myself from my enemies.

Walton Izaak 1593-1683

The Compleat Angler

I love such mirth as does not make friends ashamed to look upon one another next morning.

Wilde Oscar 1854-1900

(of Bernard Shaw)

He hasn't an enemy in the world, and none of his friends like him.

Wilson Woodrow 1856-1924

You cannot be friends upon any other terms than upon the terms of equality.

Yeats William Butler 1865-1939

„The Municipal Gallery Re-visited"

Think where man's glory most begins and ends
And say my glory was I had such friends.

Yogananda Paramahansa

There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first ... when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.

Friends quotes - good quotes about friends