—Massey.
Whatever the number of a man’s friends, there will be times in his life when he has one too few; but if he has only one enemy, he is lucky indeed if he has not one too many.
—Lytton.
He who forsakes a friend is himself forsaken of the Gods.
—Klopstock.
There are many moments in friendship, as in love, when silence is beyond words. The faults of our friend may be clear to us, but it is well to seem to shut our eyes to them. Friendship is usually treated by the majority of mankind as a tough and everlasting thing which will survive all manner of bad treatment. But this is an exceedingly great and foolish error; it may die in an hour of a single unwise word; its condition of existence is that it should be dealt with delicately and tenderly, being as it is a sensitive plant and not a roadside thistle. We must not expect our friend to be above humanity.