Quotes about friendship

16 genuine quotes about friendship, by Cicero, Aristotle and Emerson, from works including On Friendship and Nicomachean Ethics. Among the speakers: Gaius Laelius, Charlie and Hermione Granger. Some are a character speaking, not the author: each entry says who speaks, and to whom. 4 more quotes on friendship circulate under these names but are not their words as shared; they are listed at the end.

  1. Friendship is born at the moment when one man says to another “What! You too? I thought that no one but myself...”

    C. S. Lewis, The Four Loves (1960), Chapter IV, “Friendship”.

  2. I just need to know that someone out there listens and understands and doesn’t try to sleep with people even if they could have. I need to know that these people exist.

    Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999), Part One, letter of August 25, 1991, said by Charlie.

  3. And in that moment, I swear we were infinite.

    Stephen Chbosky, The Perks of Being a Wallflower (1999), A letter of October 1991 (the party at Bob’s and the drive through the tunnel; date line not read), the last line, p. 42, said by Charlie.

  4. The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

    Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849), “Wednesday”, the essay on Friendship (p. 286 in the first edition, 1849).

  5. A friend is another self.

    Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (330 BC), Book IX, chapter 4 (1166a31, chapter IV in D. P. Chase).

  6. no one would choose to live without friends.

    Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (330 BC), Book VIII, chapter 1, 1155a5–6 (chapter I in D. P. Chase).

  7. For he is, as it were, a second self.

    Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Friendship (44 BC), Chapter XXI, section 80 (Laelius de Amicitia 21.80), said by Gaius Laelius.

  8. The older the sweeter, as in wines that keep well.

    Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Friendship (44 BC), Chapter XIX, section 67 (Laelius de Amicitia 19.67), said by Gaius Laelius.

  9. You might just as well take the sun out of the sky as friendship from life.

    Marcus Tullius Cicero, On Friendship (44 BC), Chapter XIII, section 47 (Laelius de Amicitia 13.47), said by Gaius Laelius.

  10. A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series (1841), Essay VI, “Friendship”.

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  1. The only way to have a friend is to be one.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays: First Series (1841), Essay VI, “Friendship”.

  2. Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends.

    Epicurus, Principal Doctrines (270 BC), Principal Doctrines 27 (Diogenes Laertius, Lives X.148); Hicks translation (“Sovran Maxims”), 1925.

  3. Books! And cleverness! There are more important things – friendship and bravery and – oh Harry – be careful!

    J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997), Chapter 16 (Through the Trapdoor), said by Hermione Granger.

  4. It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.

    J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997), Chapter 17 (“The Man with Two Faces”), p. 221 (Bloomsbury, 2004 edition), said by Albus Dumbledore.

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

    Martin Luther King Jr., Strength to Love (1963), Strength to Love, chapter V, Loving Your Enemies; discussion of the third reason for loving enemies.

  6. ‘Men work together.’ I told him from the heart, ‘Whether they work together or apart.’

    Robert Frost, A Boy’s Will (1913), ‘The Tuft of Flowers’, final couplet, said by the first-person field worker.

Check a quote about friendship

Shared under these names, but not theirs as shared

  1. Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead. Walk beside me… just be my friend.

    Misattributed. Credited to Albert Camus. It is not by Camus; it was written by an unknown writer.

  2. A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.

    Misattributed. Credited to Elbert Hubbard. An unnamed ten-year-old schoolboy, quoted by Agnes Deans Cameron in ‘Humor in School’, The Century Magazine (April 1905) wrote it, not Hubbard.

  3. True friends stab you in the front.

    Not found. Credited to Oscar Wilde. No source in Wilde has been established. A close form was printed in Walter Winchell’s column in 1955, credited to Jimmy Nelson; the early history here rests on Wikiquote, not directly inspected newspaper pages.

  4. Friendship improves Happiness and abates Misery, by the doubling of our Joy and dividing of our Grief.

    Paraphrase. Credited to Marcus Tullius Cicero. The idea is in On Friendship (44 BC), Chapter VI, section 22 (Laelius de Amicitia 6.22), said by Gaius Laelius.

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