There is no man so friendless but that he can find a friend sincere enough to tell him disagreeable truths.—Lytton.
A friendship that makes the least noise is very often the most useful; for which reason I should prefer a prudent friend to a zealous one.—Addison.
A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends; and that the most liberal professions of good-will are very far from being the surest marks of it.—George Washington.
No friend's a friend till he shall prove a friend.—Beaumont and Fletcher.
The qualities of your friends will be those of your enemies,—cold friends, cold enemies; half friends, half enemies; fervid enemies, warm friends.—Lavater.
Purchase no friends by gifts; when thou ceasest to give such will cease to love.—Fuller.
The difficulty is not so great to die for a friend as to find a friend worth dying for.—Henry Home.
Real friendship is a slow grower, and never thrives unless engrafted upon a stock of known and reciprocal merit.—Chesterfield.
There is nothing more becoming any wise man, than to make choice of friends, for by them thou shalt be judged what thou art: let them therefore be wise and virtuous, and none of those that follow thee for gain; but make election rather of thy betters, than thy inferiors.—Sir Walter Raleigh.
'Tis thus that on the choice of friends
Our good or evil name depends.
—Gay.