What writers have said about friends and friendship, from Aristotle to the present.

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

Aristotle · Friendship

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'

C.S. Lewis · Friendship

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

Ralph Waldo Emerson · Friendship

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.

Joan Powers, Pooh's Little Instruction Book · Friendship

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.

Helen Keller · Friendship

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.

Oprah Winfrey · Friendship

The language of friendship is not words but meanings.

Henry David Thoreau · Friendship

A friend may be waiting behind a stranger's face.

Maya Angelou · Friendship

A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.

Jim Morrison · Friendship

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.

Walter Winchell · Friendship

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.

Woodrow Wilson · Friendship

The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.

Hubert H. Humphrey · Friendship

In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.

Kahlil Gibran · Friendship

A friend to all is a friend to none.

Aristotle · Friendship

One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.

Euripides · Friendship

The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.

William Blake · Friendship

There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.

Thomas Aquinas · Friendship

There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature.

Jane Austen · Friendship

Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.

Mark Twain · Friendship

Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.

Helen Keller · Friendship

A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your success.

Doug Larson · Friendship

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

Elbert Hubbard · Friendship

Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.

Euripides · Friendship

A true friend is the greatest of all blessings.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld · Friendship

Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.

Baltasar Gracian · Friendship

A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world.

Leo Buscaglia · Friendship

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

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive.

Anaïs Nin · Friendship

True friends stab you in the front.

Oscar Wilde · Friendship

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love.

Elie Wiesel · Friendship

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival.

C.S. Lewis · Friendship

Hold a true friend with both your hands.

Nigerian Proverb · Friendship

Friends are the family you choose.

Jess C. Scott · Friendship

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'

C.S. Lewis · Friendship

Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It's not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything.

Muhammad Ali · Friendship

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Verses and attributions checked against the poets' published collections; lines that circulate online under famous names but are not theirs have been left out. Translations prepared and checked by MyByteNest. Updated 1 October 2026. Spot an error? Tell us.

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