—Jeremy Taylor

Friendship consists properly in mutual offices, and a generous strife in alternate acts of kindness.

—Robert South

The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.
—Shakespeare

Heaven gives us friends to bless the present scene;
Resumes them, to prepare us for the next.
—Young

Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest to his feet.

—John Selden

True friends are the whole world to one another; and he that is a friend to himself is also a friend to mankind.

—Seneca

There is no man so friendless but what he can find a friend sincere enough to tell him disagreeable truths.