Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.—Thoreau.
The friendship between great men is rarely intimate or permanent. It is a Boswell that most appreciates a Johnson. Genius has no brother, no co-mate; the love it inspires is that of a pupil or a son.—Bulwer-Lytton.
The firmest friendships have been formed in mutual adversity; as iron is most strongly united by the fiercest flame.—Colton.
Never contract a friendship with a man that is not better than thyself.—Confucius.
There are three friendships which are advantageous, and three which are injurious. Friendship with the upright, friendship with the sincere, and friendship with the man of much information,—these are advantageous. Friendship with the man of specious airs, friendship with the insinuatingly soft, friendship with the glib-tongued,—these are injurious.—Confucius.
Friendship survives death better than absence.—J. Petit Senn.
This communicating of a man's self to his friend works two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys and cutteth griefs in half: for there is no man that imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his friend, but he grieveth the less.—Bacon.
Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the declining sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.—Washington Irving.
It may be worth noticing as a curious circumstance, when persons past forty before they were at all acquainted form together a very close intimacy of friendship. For grafts of old wood to take, there must be a wonderful congeniality between the trees.—Whately.
An old friend is not always the person whom it is easiest to make a confidant of.—George Eliot.