Friendship is a sheltering tree.

—Coleridge

We love everything on our own account; we even follow our own taste and inclination when we prefer our friends to ourselves; and yet it is this preference that alone constitutes true and perfect friendship.

—La Rochefoucauld

Friendships begin with liking or gratitude.

—George Eliot

In friendship I early was taught to believe.

—Byron

In all thy humors, whether grave or mellow
Thou’rt such a touchy, testy, pleasant fellow,
Hast so much wit and mirth and spleen about thee,
That there’s no living with thee, or without thee.
—Addison

Friendship of itself a holy tie,
Is made more sacred by adversity.
—Dryden