Dear friend, I owe a debt to you today,
A debt my hand nor heart can e’er repay;
A debt not paid in gold, were gold in store,
Can but be paid in love by loving more…

Dear friend, I pray thee, if thou wouldst be proving
Thy strong regard for me,
Make me no vows. Lip-service is not loving;
Let thy faith speak for thee…

Friends bring the most joy and the most pain. But they always find a way to mend your heart back together after they break it.

So kind, and yet a little cold.
You would not take my proffered arm.
I offered it, who could withhold,
To keep you from the ice’s harm…

If we all told what we know of one another, there would not be four friends in the world.

How strange is the lot of us mortals! Each of us is here for a brief sojourn; for what purpose we know not, though sometimes sense it. But we know from daily life that we exist for other people first of all for whose smiles and well-being our own happiness depends.

It is a matter to gain the affection of a cat. He is a philosophical animal, tenacious of his own habits, fond of order and neatness, and disinclined to extravagant sentiment. He will be your friend, if he finds you worthy of friendship, but not your slave.

Many a time from a bad beginning great friendships have sprung up.

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into friend.

Are we friends, or are we not?
You told me once, but I forgot
Tell me now, and tell me true
So I can say, I’m here for you.
Of all the friends I’ve ever met
You’re the one I won’t forget
And if I die before you do
I’ll go to heaven, and wait for you
I’ll give the angels, back their wings
And risk the loss, of everything.
Just to prove my friendship is true
To have a friend, a friend like you

No love, no friendship can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever.

Some times I wish you were here
To be my love, to be my dear
To see your smile, to see your eyes
I wish I could express the love I can’t deny…

Friends… They cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.

Too often we under estimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

Silence is the true friend that never betrays.

for a stroll with a cat; he has to walk a dog. The cat leads the way, running ahead, tail high, making sure you understand the arrangement. If you should happen to get ahead, the cat will never allow you to think it is following you. It will stop and clean some hard-to-reach spot, or investigate a suspicious movement in the grass; you will find yourself waiting a fidgeting like the lackey you are. But this is not annoying to cat lovers, who understand and appreciate a good joke, even when it is on them.

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.

If someone listens, or strectches out a hand, or whispers a kind word of encouragement, or attempts to understand a lonely person, extraordinary things begin to happen.

Trust enables you to put your deepest feelings and fears in the palm of your partner’s hand, knowing they will be handled with care.

To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.

Love all, trust a few. Do wrong to none.

United we stand, divided we fall.

Time goes by so fast, people go in and out of your life. You must never miss the opportunity to tell these people how much they mean to you.

Friends are like windows through which you see out into the world and back into yourself… If you don’t have friends you see much less than you otherwise might.

Trouble is a part of your life, and if you don’t share it, you don’t give the person who loves you a chance to love you enough.

Instead of loving your enemies — treat your friends a little better.

Don’t wait for people to be friendly, show them how.

It is more noble by silence to avoid an injury than by argument to overcome it.

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind.

An insincere friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.

Truth and tears clear the way to a deep and lasting friendship.

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks.

Beat me with the truth, don’t torture me with lies.

Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.

An honest answer is the sign of true friendship.
Often we have no time for our friends but all the time in the world for our enemies.
The ones who are bound to be your best friends must lose your trust just once to prove that they can win it back.
We are not the same persons this year as last; nor are those we love. It is a happy chance if we, changing, continue to love a changed person.

A friendship is like sand in your hand: if held loosely in the palm of your hand, it stays there, but as soon as you close your hand tightly, it slips through your fingers.

Friends are lost by calling often and calling seldom.

If I had never met you, I wouldn’t like you;
If I didn’t like you, I wouldn’t love you;
If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t miss you;
But I did, I do, and I will.

Kindness in words creates confidence, kindness in thinking creates profoundness, kindness in feeling creates love.

If I can stop one heart from breaking,
I shall not live in vain;…

To conceal anything from those to whom I am attached, is not in my nature. I can never close my lips where I have opened my heart.

Young love is a flame; very pretty, often very hot and fierce, but still only light and flickering. The love of the older and disciplined heart is as coals, deep burning, unquenchable.

All the treasure in the world is worthless, unless you have someone to share it with.

A friend is someone who has the same enemies you have.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.
A friend means well, even when he hurts you. But when an enemy puts his hand round your shoulder… watch out!

Everyone leaves footprints in your memory, but the ones that leave footprints in your heart are the ones you will truely remember.

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.

Except in cases of necessity, which are rare, leave your friend to learn unpleasant things from his enemies; they are ready enough to tell them.

Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.

Though friendship is not quick to burn, it is explosive stuff.

If you were going to die soon and had only one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are your waiting?

We always thought we’d look back on our tears and laugh, but we never thought we’d look back on our laughter and cry.

Knowing what to say is not always necessary; just the presence of a caring friend can make a world of difference.

Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannot congeal in winter.

I can trust my friends. These people force me to examine, encourage me to grow.

Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men of power are feared; but only men of character are trusted.

Every good friend was once a stranger.

A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself.

A friend is one who knows who you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you become, and still gently invites you to grow.

If I accept you as you are, I will make you worse; however, if I treat you as though you are what you are capable of becoming, I help you become that.

True friendship is like sound health, the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.

The bank of friendship cannot exist for long without deposits.

To keep a lamp burning we have to keep putting oil in it.

Friends are forever, you might lose them but you’ll never forget them.

Never explain. Your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway.

A part of you has grown in me,
together forever we shall be.
Never apart,
maybe in distance but never in heart.

To find a friend one must close one eye; To keep him, two.

Anyone can stand by you when you’re right, but a real friend will stand by you even when you’re wrong.

Too late we learn a man must hold his friend unjudged, accepted, trusted to the end.

Thy friendship oft has made my heart to ache;
Do be my enemy… for friendship’s sake.

Do not save your loving speeches
For your friends till they are dead;
Do not write them on their tombstones,
Speak them rather now instead.

Leave loved ones always with loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

Love is when you take away the feeling, the passion, and the romance in a relationship, and find out you still care for that person.

Life is full of people who will make you laugh, cry, smile until your face hurts, and so happy that you think you’ll burst. But the ones who leave their footprints on your soul are the ones that keep your life going.

A friend will break your heart, a friend will mend it, a friend will provide you with every feeling in the world, good and bad. A friend is emotion incarnate.

Friends are puzzle pieces. If one goes away, that special piece can never be replaced and that puzzle will never be whole again.

a friend is death without a witness.

He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

One who forgives an affront fosters friendship, but one who dwells on disputes will alienate a friend.

I have learned that no matter how good a friend is, they’re going to hurt you every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?

A good friend sees your first tear, catches the second and stops the third.

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

Every man should have a fair-sized cemetary in which to bury the faults of his friends.

A good friend is hard to find, hard to lose, and hard to forget.

It takes a long time to grow an old friend.

Whishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.

To lose a friend is hardship, but to forget them is as if you died too.

We call that person who has lost his father, an orphan; and the widower that man who has lost his wife. But that man who has known the immense unhappiness of losing a friend, by what name do we call him? Here every language is silent and holds its peace in impotence.

A true friend stabs you in the front.

People love others not for who they are, but for how they make us feel.

Everyone hears what you say. Friends listen to what you say. Best friends listen to what you don’t say.

Oh, the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person; having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but to pour them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together, knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then, with a breath of kindness, blow the rest away.

It is difficult to say who do you the most mischief: enemies with the worst intentions or friends with the best.

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed.
As in filling a vessel drop by drop,
There is at last a drop which makes it run over;
So in a series of kindnesses,
There is at last one which makes the heart run over.

Friends are always friends no matter how far you have to travel back in time. If you have memories together, there is always a piece of your friendship inside your heart.

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when he discovers that someone else believes in him and is willing to trust him.

Friendships are different from all other relationships. Unlike acquaintanceship, friendship is based on love. Unlike lovers and married couples, it is free of jealousy. Unlike children and parents, it knows neither criticism nor resentment. Friendship has no status in law. Business partnerships are based on a contract. So is marriage. Parents are bound by law. But friendships are freely entered into, freely given, and freely exercised.

True friendship is based on trust, honesty and sincere generosity of our hearts.

Do not make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.

True friends are the ones who never leave your heart, even if they leave your life for awhile. Even after years apart, you pick up with them right where you left off, and even if they die, they’re never dead in your heart.
I’ve learned in my lifetime so far that you can’t help who you fall for and no matter how hard you try and how much it hurts you everyday that you just wanna be with them or just talk to them you never stop trying to make them happy by the little things you say or do because thats what makes your life worth going on for.

Sometimes in life, you find a special friend. Someone who changes your life just by being a part of it. Someone who makes you laugh until you can’t stop. Someone who makes you believe that there really is good in the world. Someone who convinces you that there really is an unlocked door just waiting for you to open it. This is forever friendship. When you’re down and the world seems dark and empty, your forever friend lifts you up in spirit and makes that dark and empty world suddenly seem bright and full. Your forever friend gets you through the hard times, the sad times and the confused times. If you turn and walk away, your forever friend follows. If you lose your way, your forever friend guides you and cheers you on. Your forever friend holds your hand and tells you that everything is going to be okay. And if you find such a friend, you feel happy and complete because you need not worry. You have a forever friend, and forever has no end.

Best friends never tell each other that they’re best friends, they just know.

In life it is difficult to say who do you the most mischief;
enemies with worst intentions, or friends with the best.
Treat your friends as you do your pictures, put them in their best light.

A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand. Is not the mountain far more awe-inspiring and more clearly visible to one passing through the valley than to those who inhabit the mountain?

Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.

Some of the finest friendships are between persons of different dispositions. The mind is often attracted by perfections it lacks itself.

True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.

The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

The best kind of friend is the kind you can sit on a porch and swing with, never say a word, and then walk away feeling like it was the best conversation you ever had.

Often, the only way to comfort the suffering is to understand that you can’t understand and just be there.

One of the most important things in communication is to hear what is not being said.

Some friends only want to see the perfections in you. Others need to see the imperfections, and those are the true ones.

Love is not finding a perfect person, it is seeing an imperfect person perfectly.

What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.

Don’t walk in front of me, I may not follow.
Don’t walk behind me, I may not lead.
Just walk beside me and be my friend forever.

If you should die before me, ask if you could bring a friend.

The real test of friendship is: Can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy together those moments of life that are utterly simple? They are the moments people look back on at the end of life and number as their most sacred experiences.

One who looks for a friend without faults will have none.

Love is that condition in which the happiness of another is essential to your own.

True friendship is like a star. You don’t see its light in the brightness of prosperity but in the darkness of adversity.

The best mirror is an old friend.

Friends are always worth the trouble.

When a friend is in trouble, dont annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.

One is taught by experience to put a premium on those few people who can appreciate you for what you are.

True friendship is felt, not said.

A friend drops their plans when you’re in trouble, shares joy in your accomplishments, feels sad when you’re in pain. A friend encourages your dreams and offers advice… but when you don’t follow it, they still respect and love you.

A friend is someone who, upon seeing another friend in immense pain, would rather be the one experiencing the pain than watch their friend suffer.

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.

He who gives when he is asked has waited too long.

The only love worthy of a name is unconditional.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend. Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight is said to be the only truth.

The loss of a friend is like that of a limb; time may heal the anguish of the wound, but the loss can never be repaired.

Friendship is inexplicable, it should not be explained if one doesn’t want to kill it.

Do not appease thy fellow in his hour of anger;
do not comfort him while the dead is still laid out before him;
do not question him in the hour of his vow;
and do not strive to see him in his hour of misfortune.

If all my friends were to jump off a bridge, I wouldn’t follow. I’d be at the bottom to catch them when they fall.

Make new friends, but don’t forget the old ones.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.

Friends are the most important part of your life. Treasure the tears, treasure the laughter, but most importantly, treasure the memories.

There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first. When you learn to live for others, they will live for you.

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives mean the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is a friend who cares.

Real friends require honesty, openness, and even vulnerability. They also require attention and simple acts of kindness.

I think I never passed so sad an hour,
Dear friend, as that one at the church to-night.
The edifice from basement to the tower
Was one resplendent blaze of coloured light…

Writing is a solitary occupation. Family, friends, and society are the natural enemies of the writer. He must be alone, uninterrupted, and slightly savage if he is to sustain and complete an undertaking.
We read that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends.

The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity.

A true friend is someone you can disagree with and still remain friends. For if not, they weren’t true friends in the first place.

each one of you has enriched my life. You have helped to teach me, to guide me on this often turning and forking road of life. You have been with me through the good times and the bad. You have comforted me when I cried, held me when I was afraid, and laughed with me when I was happy.
The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.
My friend, if I could give you one thing in life, it would be the ability to see yourself as others see you, then you would realize what a truly special person you are.
Always remember you’re unique, just like everyone else.
The things I want to know are in books; my best friend is the man who’ll get me a book I ain’t read.

Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.

A house is build of logs and stone,
Of Piles and post and piers;
A home is build of loving deeds,
That stand a thousand years.

Friendship is a building contract you sign with laughter and break with tears.

Friends are those who treat you kindly behind your back.

There’s something beautiful about finding one’s innermost thoughts in another.

The greatest actions of love often got unnoticed.

It is not helpful to help a friend by putting coins in his pockets when he has got holes in his pockets.

One should go invited to a friend in good fortune, and uninvited in misfortune.

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford being stupid with them.

True friends are those who, when you make a fool of yourself, don’t believe that this condition is permanent.

True friendship’s laws are by this rule express’d, Welcome the coming, speed the parting guest.

Only solitary men know the full joys of friendship. Others have their family; but to a solitary and an exile his friends are everything.

True friendship is never serene.

Friendship is like a golden chain, then links are friends so dear, and like a rare and precious jewel, it’s treasured each year.

O no, thy love though much, is not so great,
It is my love that keeps mine eye awake,
Mine own true love that doth my rest defeat,
To play the watchman ever for thy sake.
For thee watch I, whilst thou dost wake elsewhere,
From me far off, with others all too near.

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

"I have found it impossible to carry the heavy burden of responsibility… without the help and support of the woman I love."

I laugh just like you, I cry and feel pain.
When you touch my skin, we feel the same.
But you were born black and I was born white,
Our prejudice formed because of our sight.
But if you were blind and I couldn’t see,
Just think of how nice our Friendship could be!
Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly.

The richest person in the world is not the one who still has the first dollar they ever earned. It’s the person who still has their first friend.

A friendship can weather most things and thrive in thin soil — but it needs a little mulch of letters and phone calls and small silly presents every so often — just to save it from drying out completely.