Profession of Friendship

Let us, then, be what we are, and speak what we think, and in all things
Keep ourselves loyal to truth, and the sacred professions of friendship.

Longfellow

It is good discretion not to make too much of any man at first, because one cannot hold out that proportion.

Bacon

The man that hails you Tom or Jack,
And proves by thumps upon your back
How he esteems your merit,
Is such a friend that one had need
Be very much his friend indeed
To pardon or to bear it.

Cowper