21 English quotes

Quotes about friendship

Quotes about good friends, loyalty and the people who stay with us.

“A friend in need is a friend indeed.”
– Proverb
Meaning: A person who helps you when you are in trouble is a true friend. Hard times show who your real friends are.
in need
– in a difficult situation and needing help
indeed
– truly; really
“The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Friendship", Essays (1841)
Meaning: If you want good friends, start by being a good friend yourself: kind, loyal and there for people.
“Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.”
– Elbert Hubbard
Meaning: A real friend knows your faults and mistakes and likes you anyway.
“What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
– Aristotle, Reported in Diogenes Laërtius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers (3rd century AD)
Meaning: Close friends are so alike in their thoughts and feelings that they seem to share one soul.
dwelling
– living (an old or formal word)
“Friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another: 'What! You too? I thought that no one but myself...'”
– C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (1960)
Meaning: Friendship often begins when two people discover they share an interest or feeling they thought was only theirs.
“Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, grapple them unto thy soul with hoops of steel.”
– William Shakespeare, Hamlet (c. 1600)
Meaning: When you have friends who have proved they are loyal, hold on to them as tightly as you can.
thou hast
– an old form of "you have"
grapple
– hold tightly
hoops of steel
– strong metal rings, like those that hold a barrel together
“'Pooh!' he whispered. 'Yes, Piglet?' 'Nothing,' said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw. 'I just wanted to be sure of you.'”
– A. A. Milne, The House at Pooh Corner (1928)
Meaning: Sometimes friendship needs no words. Just knowing your friend is there makes you feel safe.
paw
– an animal's foot
“You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
– E. B. White, Charlotte's Web (1952)
Meaning: Charlotte the spider helped Wilbur the pig simply because he was her friend. Friendship itself is a great gift that needs no other reason.
tremendous
– very great
“I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you and it as well.”
– J. R. R. Tolkien, The Return of the King (1955)
Meaning: Sam cannot carry Frodo's burden for him, but he can carry Frodo himself. A friend can't always solve your problem, but can help you through it.
“True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.”
– George Washington, Letter to Bushrod Washington (1783)
Meaning: Real friendship takes time to grow. Only when it survives hard times together does it deserve to be called friendship.
withstand
– survive something without being damaged
adversity
– difficulty or bad luck
appellation
– a name or title
“This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects; for it redoubleth joys, and cutteth griefs in halves.”
– Francis Bacon, "Of Friendship", Essays (1625)
Meaning: Sharing your life with a friend has two opposite effects: good news feels twice as good, and sad news hurts half as much.
contrary
– opposite
redoubleth
– an old form of "doubles"
cutteth griefs in halves
– cuts sadness in half
“It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.”
– Epicurus, Vatican Sayings (3rd century BC)
Meaning: What comforts us most is not the actual help friends give, but knowing that they would help if we needed it.
“Friendship is a sheltering tree.”
– Samuel Taylor Coleridge, "Youth and Age" (1832)
Meaning: A good friend protects you, like a tree that keeps off the rain and sun.
sheltering
– giving protection
“And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.”
– Kahlil Gibran, The Prophet (1923)
Meaning: Don't make friends to get something from them. The only goal of friendship should be to help each other grow as people.
save
– except (a formal, old-fashioned use)
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”
– Anaïs Nin, The Diary of Anaïs Nin (1937)
Meaning: Every friend brings out a different side of us, one that might never have existed without them.
“In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
– Often attributed to Martin Luther King Jr.
Meaning: Attacks from enemies are expected. What really hurts is when friends stay quiet instead of standing up for us.
“A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Friendship", Essays (1841)
Meaning: A true friend is one of the finest things the world can produce.
reckoned
– considered; thought of as
masterpiece
– the best piece of work someone has made
“Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.”
– Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (c. 340 BC)
Meaning: Even if you had money, health and everything else, life would not be worth living without friends.
goods
– good things in life
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.”
– Often attributed to Muhammad Ali
Meaning: Friendship can't be taught in a classroom, but it is one of the most important lessons in life.
“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”
– Often attributed to Oprah Winfrey
Meaning: Many people want to be near you when you are successful. A true friend stays with you when things go wrong.
limo
– short for limousine, a long, expensive car
“No man is a failure who has friends.”
– Clarence Odbody, It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
Meaning: Having good friends is a kind of success that matters more than money or career.