#friendship

Many a one cannot loosen his own fetters, but is nevertheless his friend's emancipator.

Are you a slave? Then you cannot be a friend. Are you a tyrant? Then you cannot have friends.

Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flames.

Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.

A genuine friend is another self, mirroring the virtue and striving of one's own spirit.

Think not those faithful who praise all thy words and actions, but those who kindly reprove thy faults.

No one would choose a life of possessing all good things on condition of being solitary, for man is a social being and naturally disposed to live with others.

Misfortune reveals those who are not really friends.

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.

Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

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

Perfect friendship is the friendship of men who are good, and alike in virtue; for these wish well alike to each other qua good, and they are good in themselves.

A true friend is someone who desires what is good for his companion for his companion's sake.

To be friends with many people in the way of perfect friendship is impossible, just as it is impossible to be in love with many people at once.

Between friends there is no need of justice, but people who are just still need the bond of friendship.

Distance does not break off the friendship absolutely, but only the activity of it.

A friend to all is a friend to none.

In poverty and other misfortunes of life, true friends are a sure refuge.

The antidote for fifty enemies is one true friend.

True friendship requires time and familiarity; as the proverb says, people cannot know each other until they have eaten the proverbial salt together.

To be loved is near to being honored, and honor is what most men covet; but true friendship is chosen for itself alone.

We should behave to our friends as we would wish our friends to behave to us.

Friends hold a mirror up to each other; through the other, each sees his own soul.

The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake alone.

When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they still need friendship; and the highest form of justice seems to have the character of friendship.

Friendship is an equality of loving, where each partner receives back what they bestow.

The presence of friends in misfortune is a complex thing; their sympathy relieves our grief, yet it pains us to see them grieving for our sake.

It is neither easy nor right to abandon a longstanding friendship that was grounded in virtue.

Self-love increases or diminishes the good qualities of our friends in proportion to the satisfaction we receive from them.

True friendship proves itself not in sharing happiness, but in sharing the burdens of sorrow without resentment.