The charm, the grace that Time makes strong,
All these I prize but (entre nous)
Old friends are best.
—Dobson.
The only reward of virtue is virtue. The only way to have a friend is to be one.
—Emerson.
The most powerful and the most lasting friendships are usually those of the early season of our lives, when we are most susceptible of warm and affectionate impressions. The connections into which we enter in any after-period decrease in strength as our passions abate in heat; and there is not, I believe, a single instance of vigorous friendship that ever struck root in a bosom chilled by years.