Great Thinkers' Friendship Quotes

Many great thinkers have been quoted on their views of friendship. Sweet words about friends, friendships, & love of a friend by wise philosophers, writers & artists.

Friendship. A simple subject. Perhaps not one considered to be something about which deep thinkers mull and debate.

And yet, many of those thought of as great thinkers and wise people find the love and loyalty of a true friend to be one of the greatest treasures in life.

Below are friendship quotations from writers, philosophers, leaders and humble folk.

Friendship Quotes of Encouragement

• “Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think." (Christopher Robin to Pooh) - A. A. Milne
• “Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all who offer you friendship let me be ever the first, the truest, the nearest and dearest!" - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Quotations Examining "What Is a Friend?"

• “A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.” - Douglas Pagels
• “My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me." - Henry Ford
• “In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” - Albert Schweitzer
• “What is a friend? I will tell you - it is someone with whom you dare to be yourself.” - Frank Crane
• “A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.” - Leo Buscaglia

Quotes on Loyalty and True Friendship

• “Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.” - Mark Twain
• “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” - Elisabeth Foley
• “A friend is the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out." - Grace Pulpit

Wise Words on Needing a Friend

• “Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” - Aristotle
• “Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” - Albert Camus
• “Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.” - C. S. Lewis
• “It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.” - Epicurus

Loving Quotes on the Value of Friendship

• “Friends are treasures.” - Horace Bruns
• “My father always used to say that when you die, if you've got five real friends, then you've had a great life.” - Lido Anthony "Lee" Iacocca
• “One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.” - Euripides
• “Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.” - George Eliot
• “The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.” - Hubert H. Humphrey

Friendship Quotes: What Is a Good Friend?

• “If instead of a gem, or even a flower, we should cast the gift of a loving thought into the heart of a friend, that would be giving as the angels give." - George MacDonald
• “You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job.” - Laurence J. Peter

Sweet Quotations for Wonderful Old Friends

• “Constant use will not wear ragged the fabric of friendship.” - Dorothy Parker
• “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” - Marcel Proust
• “Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend." - Plautus
• “It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson
• “Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend." - Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

For other articles on love words, fondness, sweet words of friendship and loving words of passion, also see :

Sweet Love Words: Valentine Quotes,

Wise Quotes from Great Thinkers

Sweet Love Words: Valentine Quotes

Sweet Words for Mother's Day Cards

Too often people let friendships simmer on the back burners of life instead of sharing how they feel about the dear sweet loving people in their lives. Let these wise friendship love words wash over the consciousness and be shared with a good friend, perhaps for Valentine's Day, at a wedding or bridal shower, or "just because."

Resources:

allinspiration.com

Best Friends

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