No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth.
—Southey.
After a certain age a new friend is a wonder. There is the age of blossoms and sweet budding green, the age of generous summer, the autumn when the leaves drop, and then winter shivering and bare.
—Thackeray.
Nothing is more common than the name of friend, nothing more rare than true friendship.
Truthfulness, frankness, disinterestedness, and faithfulness are the qualities absolutely essential to friendship, and these must be crowned by a sympathy that enters into all the joys, the sorrows and the interests of the friend; that delights in all his upward progress, and when he stumbles or falls, stretches out the helping hand, and is tender and patient even when it condemns.
—Ware.