diff options
Diffstat (limited to '75263-0.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 75263-0.txt | 2837 |
1 files changed, 2837 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/75263-0.txt b/75263-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fc1ea7b --- /dev/null +++ b/75263-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2837 @@ + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75263 *** + + + + + + + From the Heart of + a Friend + + Selected By + AMY ADDINGLEY + + New York + THE PLATT & PECK CO. + + COPYRIGHT, 1910, BY + THE PLATT & PECK COMPANY + + + + +PREFACE. + + +There is something in the very name of FRIEND that quickens the pulse and +warms the heart. The most beautiful relationship in human intercourse +is friendship, and it is at once the easiest and most difficult of +attainment. In friendship’s name much is endured, much attempted and many +sacrifices are made, and the greatest happiness is gained. Friends may +come and go with the passing years, but the sweet memory of friendship’s +happy hour remains. + + + + +Deliberate long before thou consecrate a friend; and when thy impartial +judgment concludes him worthy of thy bosom, receive him joyfully and +entertain him wisely; impart thy secrets boldly, and mingle thy thought +with his; he is thy very self; and use him so. If thou firmly believe him +faithful, thou makest him so. + + —Quarles. + + * * * * * + +In the hours of distress and misery, the eyes of every mortal turn to +friendship. In the hour of gladness and conviviality, what is your want? +It is friendship. When the heart overflows with gratitude, or with any +other sweet and sacred sentiment, what is the word to which it would give +utterance? A Friend. + + —Landor. + + * * * * * + +A man’s best female friend is a wife of good sense and good heart, whom +he loves, and who loves him. If he have that, he need not seek elsewhere. +But supposing the man be without such a helpmate, female friendship he +must have, or his intellect will be without a garden, and there will be +many an unheeded gap even in its strongest fence. + + —Lytton. + + * * * * * + +After friendship it is confidence; before friendship it is judgment. + + —Seneca. + + * * * * * + +A friend is a person before whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think +aloud. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + +A faithful friend is the true image of the Deity. + + —Napoleon. + + * * * * * + +A friend cannot be known in prosperity, and an enemy cannot be hidden in +adversity. + +True friends visit us in prosperity only when invited, but in adversity +they come without invitation. + + * * * * * + +A friend may be often found and lost, but an old friend can never be +found, and nature has provided that he cannot be easily lost. + + —Jonson. + + * * * * * + +A friend is he who sets his heart upon us, is happy with us, and delights +in us; and does for us what we want, is willing and fully engaged to do +all he can for us, on whom we can rely in all cases. + + —Channing. + + * * * * * + +A friendship will be young after the lapse of half a century; a passion +is old at the end of three months. + + * * * * * + + Ah, were I sever’d from thy side, + Where were thy friend, and who my guide? + Years have not seen—Time shall not see + The hour that tears my soul from thee. + + —Byron. + + * * * * * + +Although a friend may remain faithful in misfortune, yet none but the +very best and loftiest will remain faithful to us after our errors and +our sins. + + —Farrar. + + * * * * * + +Friendship is the greatest bond in the world. + + —Taylor. + + * * * * * + +A man should not repudiate the friendship of a woman because it may lead +to harm; he should cherish the friendship and beware of the harm. + + —Alger. + + * * * * * + +A man’s reputation is what his friends say about him. His character is +what his enemies say about him. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that +actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends, +and that the most liberal profession of good will is very far from being +the surest mark of it. + + —Washington. + + * * * * * + +A woman, if she really be your friend, will have a sensitive regard +for your character, honor, repute. She will seldom counsel you to do a +shabby thing, for a woman friend desires to be proud of you. At the same +time her constitutional timidity makes her more cautious than your male +friend. She therefore seldom counsels you to do an imprudent thing. + + —Lytton. + + * * * * * + +A true test of friendship: to sit or walk with a friend for an hour in +perfect silence without wearying of one another’s company. + + —Mulock. + + * * * * * + +Always leave my friend something more to be desired of me. Be useful to +my friend, as far as he permits, and no further. Be much occupied with +my own affairs, and little, very little, with those of my friend. Leave +my friend always at liberty to think and act for himself, especially in +matters of little importance. + + —Gold Dust. + + * * * * * + + And thou, my friend, whose gentle love + Yet thrills my bosom’s chords, + How much thy friendship was above + Description’s power of words! + + —Byron. + + * * * * * + + As o’er the glacier’s frozen sheet + Breathes soft the Alpine rose, + So, through life’s desert springing sweet, + The flower of friendship grows. + + —Holmes. + + * * * * * + + A faithful friend, best boon of Heaven, + Unto some favored mortal given; + Though still the same, yet varying still, + Our each successive wants to fill, + Whatever form his presence wears + That presence every form endears. + + —Williams. + + * * * * * + +As people grow older friends and associates of youth are apt to be more +appreciated, and old relations are oftentimes resumed that have been +suffered to languish for many years. + +These links with the past form a chain that, next to the ties of blood, +forms one of the strongest relations of social life. + +Although pessimists declare that friendship is a myth and what are called +intimates are people who consort together for amusement or self-interest, +the very fact that there is this feeling of especial kindness for +old time associates proves that there is such a thing as sentiment +independent of worldly considerations. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +Every friend is to the other a sun and a sunflower also. He attracts and +follows. + + —Richter. + + * * * * * + + I want a warm and faithful friend, + To cheer the adverse hour; + Who ne’er to flatter will descend, + Nor bend the knee to power. + A friend to chide me when I’m wrong, + My inmost soul to see; + And that my friendship prove as strong + To him as his to me. + + —Adams. + + * * * * * + +Friendship is an allay of our sorrows, the ease of our passions, the +discharge of our oppressions, the sanctuary to our calamities, the +counsellor of our doubts, the charity of our minds, the emission of our +thoughts, the exercise and improvement of what we meditate. + + —Taylor. + + * * * * * + +Beware lest thy friend learn to tolerate one frailty of thine, and so an +obstacle be raised to the progress of thy love. + + —Thoreau. + + * * * * * + +Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing. + + —Franklin. + + * * * * * + +It is not becoming to turn from friends in adversity, but then it is for +those who have basked in the sunshine of their prosperity to adhere to +them. No one was ever so foolish as to select the unfortunate for their +friends. + + —Lucanus. + + * * * * * + +Consult your friend on all things, especially on those which concern +yourself; his counsel may then be useful, where your own self-love might +impair your judgment. + + —Seneca. + + * * * * * + + Constant and solid, whom no storms can shake, + Nor death unfix, a right friend ought to be; + And if condemned to survive, doth make + No second choice, but grief and memory. + But friendship’s best fate is, when it can spend + A life, a fortune, all to serve a friend. + + —Philips. + + * * * * * + +Friendships are discovered rather than made. + + —Stowe. + + * * * * * + + Commend me to the friend that comes + When I am sad and lone, + And makes the anguish of my heart + The suffering of his own; + Who calmly shuns the glittering throng + At pleasure’s gay levee, + And comes to gild a sombre hour + And gives his heart to me. + + * * * * * + + Commend me to that generous heart + Which, like the pine on high, + Uplifts the same unvarying brow + To every change of sky; + Whose friendship does not fade away + When wintry tempests blow, + But like the winter’s icy crown, + Looks greener through the snow. + + * * * * * + + He flits not with the flitting stork + That seeks a southern sky, + But lingers where the wounded bird + Hath laid him down to die. + Oh, such a friend he is in truth, + Whate’er his lot may be, + A rainbow on the storm of life, + An anchor on its sea. + + —Anon. + + * * * * * + + Choose your friend wisely, + Test your friend well, + True friends, like rarest gems, + Prove hard to tell. + Winter him, summer him, + Know your friend well. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +Dear to me is a friend, yet I can also make use of an enemy; the friend +shows me what I can do, the foe teaches me what I should. + + —Schiller. + + * * * * * + +Don’t flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable +things to your intimates. The nearer you come into relation with a +person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become. 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. + + —Holmes. + + * * * * * + +Everything that is mine, even to my life, I may give to one I love; but +the secret of my friend is not mine to give. + + —Sidney. + + * * * * * + + Every One that flatters thee + Is no friend in misery. + Words are easy, like the wind; + Faithful friends are hard to find. + Every man will be thy friend + Whilst thou hast wherewith to spend. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + + Friendship, peculiar boon of heaven, + The noble mind’s delight and pride, + To men and angels only given, + To all the lower world denied. + Thy gentle flows of guiltless joys + On fools and villains ne’er descend; + In vain for thee the tyrant sighs, + And hugs a flatterer for a friend. + Nor shall thine ardours cease to glow + When souls to peaceful climes remove; + What rais’d our virtue here below + Shall aid our happiness above. + + —Jonson. + + * * * * * + +Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship never. + + * * * * * + +Friendship is love without its flowers or veil. + + * * * * * + +Friendship maketh indeed a fair day in the affections from storm and +tempests, but it maketh daylight in the understanding out of darkness and +confusion of thoughts. + + —Bacon. + + * * * * * + +Friendship is to be valued for what there is in it, not what can be +gotten out of it. When two people appreciate each other because each +has found the other convenient to have around, they are not friends, +they are simply acquaintances with a business understanding. To seek +friendship for its utility is as futile as to seek the end of a rainbow +for its bag of gold. A true friend is always useful in the highest sense; +but we should beware of thinking of our friends as brother members of a +mutual benefit association, with its periodical demands and threats of +suspension for non-payment of dues. + + * * * * * + + Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like; + Friendship is a sheltering tree; + O! the joys, that came down shower-like, + Of Friendship, Love and Liberty. + + —Coleridge. + + * * * * * + +Friendship, like love, is destroyed by long absence, though it may be +increased by short intermissions. What we have missed long enough to want +it we value more when it is regained; but that which has been lost until +it is forgotten will be found at last with little gladness, and with +still less if a substitute has supplied the place. + + —Jonson. + + * * * * * + +Far from the eyes, far from the heart, say the vulgar. Believe nothing +of it; if it was so, the farther you were distant from me the cooler my +love for you would be; whilst on the contrary the less I can enjoy your +presence, the more the desire of that pleasure burns in the soul of your +friend. + + —St. Anselm. + + * * * * * + +Female friendship, indeed, is to a man the bulwark, sweetener, ornament, +of his existence. To his mental culture it is invaluable; without it all +his knowledge of books will never give him knowledge of the world. + + —Montaigne. + + * * * * * + +Friendship is rarer than love and more enduring. + + —Taylor. + + * * * * * + +Friends require to be advised and reproved, and such treatment, when it +is kindly, should be taken in a friendly spirit. + + —Cicero. + + * * * * * + +Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote +the good and happiness of each other. + + —Addison. + + * * * * * + +Fellowship is heaven, and lack of fellowship is hell; fellowship is life, +and lack of fellowship is death; and the deeds that ye do upon earth, it +is for fellowship’s sake that ye do them. + + —Morris. + + * * * * * + + If you have a friend worth loving, + Love him. Yes, and let him know + That you love him, ere life’s evening + Tinge his brow with sunset glow; + Why should good words ne’er be said + Of a friend till he is dead? + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + + Has fortune frowned? Her frowns were vain; + For hearts like ours she could not chill! + Have friends proved false? Their love might wane, + But ours grew fonder, firmer still. + + —Watts. + + * * * * * + + He who serves and seeks for gain, + And follows but for form, + Will pack when it begins to rain, + And leave thee in the storm. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +He that hath no friend and no enemy is one of the vulgar, and without +talents, power, or energy. + + —Lavater. + + * * * * * + +Happy the man whose life is spent in friendship’s calm security. + + —Aeschylus. + + * * * * * + + Friend is a word of royal tone; + Friend is a poem all alone. + + —From the Persian. + + * * * * * + + How sweet, how passing sweet is solitude, + But grant me still a friend in my retreat, + Whom I may whisper—solitude is sweet. + + —Cowper. + + * * * * * + +Hand grasps hand, eye lights eye, in good Friendship. And great hearts +expand and grow one in the sense of this world’s life. + + —Browning. + + * * * * * + +How few are there born with souls capable of friendship. Then how much +fewer must there be capable of love, for love includes friendship and +much more besides! + + * * * * * + +He who has a thousand friends has not a friend to spare, And he who has +an enemy will meet him everywhere. + + * * * * * + +I could not live without the love of my friends. + + —Keats. + + * * * * * + +I awake this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and +the new. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + + I find no place that does not breathe + Some gracious memory of my friend. + + —Tennyson. + + * * * * * + +I have always laid it down as a maxim, and found it justified by +experience, that a man and woman make far better friendships than can +exist between two of the same sex; but with this condition, that they +never have made, or are to make, love with each other. + + —Byron. + + * * * * * + +If a man does not make new acquaintances as he passes through life, he +will soon find himself left alone. A man should keep his friendships in +constant repair. + + —Jonson. + + * * * * * + +I loved my friend for his gentleness, his candor, his good repute, +his freedom even from my own livelier manner, his calm and reasonable +kindness. It was not particular talent that attracted me to him, or +anything striking whatsoever. I should say in one word, it was his +goodness. + + —Hunt. + + * * * * * + +I never yet cast a true affection on a woman; but I have loved my friend +as I do virtue, my soul, my God. I love my friend before myself, and yet +methinks I do not love him enough; some few months hence my multiplied +affection will make me believe I have not loved him at all. When I am +from him I am dead till I be with him; when I am with him I am not +satisfied, but would be still nearer him. + + —Browne. + + * * * * * + +In all holiest and most unselfish love, friendship is the purest element +of the affection. No love in any relation of life can be at its best if +the element of friendship is lacking. And no love can transcend, in its +possibilities of noble and ennobling exaltation, a love that is pure +friendship. + + * * * * * + +A true friendship is as wise as it is tender. + + —Thoreau. + + * * * * * + +I think when people have forgotten that each other exists it is as though +they had never met. They are perhaps something more distant still than +strangers, for to strangers friendship in the future is possible; but +those who have been separated by oblivion on the one hand and by contempt +on the other are parted as surely and eternally as though death had +divided them. + + —Ouida. + + * * * * * + +If words came as ready as ideas, and ideas as feelings, I could say ten +hundred kind things. You know not my supreme happiness at having one on +earth whom I can call friend. + + —Lamb. + + * * * * * + +If it were expediency that cemented friendships, expediency when changed +would dissolve them, but because one’s nature can never change, therefore +true friendships are eternal. + + —Cicero. + + * * * * * + +If I could choose a young man’s companions, some should be weaker than +himself, that he might learn patience and charity; many should be as +nearly as possible his equals, that he might have the full freedom of +his friendship; but most should be stronger than he was, that he might +forever be thinking humbly of himself and tempted to higher things. + + —Brooks. + + * * * * * + +In friendship there is nothing pretended, nothing feigned; whatever there +is in it is both genuine and spontaneous. + + —Cicero. + + * * * * * + + Is it so small a thing + To have enjoyed the sun, + To have lived light in the spring, + To have loved, to have thought, to have done; + To have advanced true friends, and beat down baffling foes? + + —Arnold. + + * * * * * + +It is only the great-hearted who can be true friends; the mean and +cowardly can never know what true friendship is. + + —Kingsley. + + * * * * * + + If any little love of mine + May make a life the sweeter, + If any little care of mine + May make a friend’s the fleeter, + If any lift of mine may ease + The burden of another, + God give me love and care and strength + To help my toiling brother. + + * * * * * + + It is the secret sympathy, + The silver link, the silver tie, + Which heart to heart, and mind to mind + In body and in soul can bind. + + —Scott. + + * * * * * + +It is easy to say how we love new friends and what we think of them, but +words can never trace out all the fibres that knit us to the old. + + —Eliot. + + * * * * * + + My treasures are my friends. + If thought unlock her mysteries, + If friendship on me smile, + I walk in marble galleries, + I talk with kings the while. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + +Just as in Love’s records there are many cases of one-sided passion, so +in friendship you frequently see one person who makes all the professions +or demonstrations, while the other person is either passive or actually +bored. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +Let us approach our friend with an audacious trust in the truth of his +heart, in the breadth, impossible to be overturned, of his foundations. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + +Let us learn to be content with what we have. Let us get rid of our false +estimates, set up all the higher ideals—a quiet home; vines of our own +planting; a few books full of the inspiration of genius; a few friends +worthy of being loved and able to love us in turn; a hundred innocent +pleasures that bring no pain or sorrow; a devotion to the right that will +never swerve; a simple religion empty of all bigotry; full of trust and +hope and love; and to such a philosophy this world will give up all the +empty joy it has. + + —Swing. + + * * * * * + + Only a smile from a kindly face, + On the busy street that day, + Forgotten as soon as given, perhaps, + As the donor went her way. + But straight to my heart it went speeding, + To gild the clouds that were there, + And I found that of sunshine and life’s blue skies, + I also might take my share. + + —MacDonald. + + * * * * * + +Love and keep him for thy friend, who, when all go away, will not forsake +thee, nor suffer thee to perish at the last. + + —Kempis. + + * * * * * + + Many there be who call themselves our friends; + Yet, ah, if heaven sends + One, only one, so mated to our soul, + To make our half a whole, + Rich beyond price we are. + + * * * * * + +Men only become friends by a community of pleasures. He who cannot be +softened into gaiety, cannot be easily melted into kindness. + + —Johnson. + + * * * * * + + My careful breast was free again, + O friend, my bosom said; + Through thee alone the sky is arched, + Through thee the rose is red. + Me, too, thy nobleness has taught + To master my despair; + The fountains of my hidden life + Are through thy friendship fair. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + +New friends can never take the same place in our lives as the old. The +former may be better liked for the time, their society may even have +more attractions, but in a way they are strangers. If through change of +circumstances they go out of our lives, they go out of it altogether. +These latter-day friendships have no root, as it were. Their growth is +as Jonah’s gourd—overshadowing, perhaps, and expansive, but all on the +surface; whereas an old friend remains an old friend forever. Although +separated for an indefinite period and not seen for years, if a chance +happening brings old comrades together they resume the old relations in +the most natural manner, and take up the former lines as easily as if +there had been no break or interruption of the intermediate intercourse +of auld lang syne. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those +who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth. + + —Southey. + + * * * * * + +After a certain age a new friend is a wonder. There is the age of +blossoms and sweet budding green, the age of generous summer, the autumn +when the leaves drop, and then winter shivering and bare. + + —Thackeray. + + * * * * * + +Nothing is more common than the name of friend, nothing more rare than +true friendship. + + * * * * * + +Truthfulness, frankness, disinterestedness, and faithfulness are the +qualities absolutely essential to friendship, and these must be crowned +by a sympathy that enters into all the joys, the sorrows and the +interests of the friend; that delights in all his upward progress, and +when he stumbles or falls, stretches out the helping hand, and is tender +and patient even when it condemns. + + —Ware. + + * * * * * + +Of all felicities, the most charming is that of a firm and gentle +friendship. It sweetens all our cares, dispels our sorrows, and counsels +us in all extremities. Nay, if there were no other comfort in it than +the bare exercise of so generous a virtue, even for that single reason +a man would not be without it; it is a sovereign antidote against all +calamities—even against the fear of death itself. + + —Seneca. + + * * * * * + +Of what shall a man be proud if he is not proud of his friends? + + —Stevenson. + + * * * * * + + Old books, old wine, old nankin blue— + All things, in short, to which belong + The charm, the grace that Time makes strong, + All these I prize but (entre nous) + Old friends are best. + + —Dobson. + + * * * * * + +The only reward of virtue is virtue. The only way to have a friend is to +be one. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + +The most powerful and the most lasting friendships are usually those of +the early season of our lives, when we are most susceptible of warm and +affectionate impressions. The connections into which we enter in any +after-period decrease in strength as our passions abate in heat; and +there is not, I believe, a single instance of vigorous friendship that +ever struck root in a bosom chilled by years. + + * * * * * + +The tide of friendship does not rise high on the banks of perfection. +Amiable weaknesses and shortcomings are the food of love. It is from the +roughness and imperfect breaks in a man that you are able to lay hold +of him. My friend is not perfect—no more am I—and so we suit each other +admirably. + + —Smith. + + * * * * * + + Old friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air; + Love them for what they are; nor love them less, + Because to thee they are not what they were. + + —Coleridge. + + * * * * * + +Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection. The +scholar sits down to write, and all his years of meditation do not +furnish him with one good thought or happy expression; but it is not +necessary to write a letter to a friend, and, forthwith, troops of gentle +thoughts invest themselves, on every hand, with chosen words. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + +Only he who is unwilling to love without being loved is likely to feel +that there is no such thing as friendship in the world. + + * * * * * + +Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much +agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking. + + —Eliot. + + * * * * * + +Silence is the ambrosial night in the intercourse of friends, in which +their sincerity is recruited and takes deeper root. The language of +friends is not words, but meanings. It is an intelligence above language. + + —Thoreau. + + * * * * * + +Friendship hath the skill and observation of the best physician; the +diligence and vigilance of the best nurse; and the tenderness and +patience of the best mother. + + —Lord Clarendon. + + * * * * * + + So, if I live or die to serve my friend, + ’Tis for my love—’tis for my friend alone, + And not for any rate that friendship bears + In heaven or on earth. + + —Eliot. + + * * * * * + +So long as we love, we serve. So long as we are loved by others I would +almost say we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a +friend. + + —Stevenson. + + * * * * * + +Two people who are friends make themselves responsible for each other. If +I had a friend, and he went to the bad, and I met him in rags and poverty +and disgrace, and if it ruined me to own him and help him, I should have +to do it. If two men are really friends, nothing can come between them. + + —Murray. + + * * * * * + +Some people keep a friend as children have a toy bank, into which they +drop little coins now and again; and some day they draw out the whole of +their savings at once. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +Some seem to make a man a friend, or try to do so, because he lives near, +because he is in the same business, travels on the same line of railway, +or for some other trivial reason. There cannot be a greater mistake. + + —Avebury. + + * * * * * + +Take heed of thy friends. A faithful friend is a strong defence; and +he that hath found such a one hath found a treasure. Nothing doth +countervail a faithful friend, and his excellency is invaluable. + + —Proverbs. + + * * * * * + +There is no surer bond of friendship than an identity and community +of ideas and tastes. What sweetness is left in life if you take away +friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the +sun. + + —Cicero. + + * * * * * + +The only true and firm friendship is that between man and woman, because +it is the only one free from all possible competition. + + —Comte. + + * * * * * + +The place where two friends met is sacred to them all through their +friendship, all the more sacred as their friendship deepens and grows old. + + —Brooks. + + * * * * * + + The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, + Grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +The making of friends who are real friends is the best token we have of a +man’s success in life. + + —Hale. + + * * * * * + +The years have taught some sweet, some bitter lessons—none wiser than +this: to spend in all things else, but of old friends to be most miserly. + + —Lowell. + + * * * * * + + Of all the heavenly gifts that mortal men commend, + What trusty treasure in the world can countervail a friend? + Our health is soon decayed; goods, casual, light and vain; + Broke have we seen the force of power, and honor suffer stain. + In body’s lust man doth resemble but base brute; + True virtue gets and keeps a friend, good guide of our pursuit. + Whose hearty zeal with ours accords in every case; + No term of mine, no space of place, no storm can it deface. + + —Nicholas Grimoald. + + * * * * * + +The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no +wealth to bestow upon him. If he knows I am happy in loving him, he will +want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this? + + —Lavater. + + * * * * * + +Take envy out of a character and it leaves great possibilities for +friendship. + + * * * * * + + There is no friend like the old friend who has shared our morning days, + No greeting like his welcome, no homage like his praise. + Fame is the scentless sunflower with gaudy crown of gold; + But friendship is the breathing rose, with sweets in every fold. + + —Holmes. + + * * * * * + +There is no man so friendless but what he can find a friend sincere +enough to tell him disagreeable truths. + + —Lytton. + + * * * * * + +There is, after all, something in those trifles that friends bestow upon +each other which is an unfailing indication of the place the giver holds +in the affections. I would believe that one who preserved a lock of hair, +a simple flower or any trifle of my bestowing, loved me, though no show +was made of it; while all the protestations in the world would not win my +confidence in one who set no value on such little things. + + * * * * * + +Trifles they may be; but it is by such that character and disposition are +oftenest revealed. + + —Irving. + + * * * * * + +The feeling of friendship is like that of being comfortably filled with +roast beef; love, like being enlivened with champagne. + + —Jonson. + + * * * * * + +There are two elements that go to the composition of friendship, each +so sovereign that I can detect no superiority in either, no reason why +either should be first named. One is Truth. A friend is a person with +whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at +last in the presence of a man so real and equal that I may drop even +those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, +which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and +wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another. Sincerity is the +luxury allowed, like diadems and authority, only to the highest rank, +that being permitted to speak truth as having none above it to court or +conform unto. + +Every man alone is sincere. The other element of friendship is tenderness. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + +Foolish he who for the world would change a faithful friend. + + —Euripides. + + * * * * * + + He who wrongs his friend + Wrongs himself more and ever bears about + A silent court of justice in his breast. + + —Tennyson. + + * * * * * + +Think of the importance of friendship in the education of men. It will +make a man honest; it will make him a hero; it will make him a saint. It +is the state of the just dealing with the just, the magnanimous with the +magnanimous, the sincere with the sincere, man with man. + + —Thoreau. + + * * * * * + +Thou mayest be sure that he that will in private tell thee of thy faults +is thy friend, for he adventures thy dislike, and doth hazard thy hatred; +there are few men that can endure it, every man for the most part +delighting in self-praise, which is one of the most universal follies +that bewitcheth mankind. + + —Raleigh. + + * * * * * + +Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspired. + + —Pope. + + * * * * * + + Thy lips are bland, + And bright the friendship of thine eye; + And in my thoughts with scarce a sigh, + I take the pressure of thine hand. + + —Tennyson. + + * * * * * + + Thy friend will come to thee unsought, + With nothing can his love be bought, + His soul thine own will know at sight, + With him thy heart can speak outright. + Greet him nobly, love him well, + Show him where your best thoughts dwell, + Trust him greatly and for aye; + A true friend comes but once your way. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +Treat your friends for what you know them to be. Regard no surfaces. +Consider not what they did, but what they intended. + + —Thoreau. + + * * * * * + +To contract ties of friendship with any one, is to contract friendship +with his virtue; there ought not to be any other motive in friendship. + + —Confucius. + + * * * * * + + Thy voice is near me in my dreams; + In accents sweet and low, + Telling of happiness and love + In days long, long ago. + + Word after word I think I hear, + Yet strange it seems to me + That, though I listen to thy voice, + Thy face I never see. + + From night to night my weary heart + Lives on the treasured past, + And ev’ry day I fondly say, + He’ll come to me at last. + + Yet still I weep, and watch and pray + As time rolls slowly on; + And yet I have no hope but thee, + Thou first, thou dearest one. + + —Lindsay. + + * * * * * + +We ought to acquaint ourselves with the beautiful; we ought to +contemplate it with rapture, and attempt to raise ourselves to its +height. And in order to gain strength for that, we must keep ourselves +thoroughly unselfish—we must not make it our own, but rather seek to +communicate it; indeed, to make a sacrifice of it to those who are dear +and precious to us. + + —Goethe. + + * * * * * + +Tell me, gentle traveler, who hast wandered through the world, and seen +the sweetest roses blow, and brightest gliding rivers, of all thine eyes +have seen, which is the fairest land? “Child, shall I tell thee where +nature is more blest and fair? It is where those we love abide. Though +that space be small, ample is it above kingdoms; though it be a desert, +through it runs the river of Paradise, and there are the enchanted +bowers.” + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + + To friends and e’en to foes true kindness show; + No kindly heart unkindly deeds will do; + Harshness will alienate a bosom friend, + And kindness reconcile a deadly foe. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + + We let our friends pass idly, like our time, + Till they are lost, and then we see our crime! + We think what worth in them might have been known, + What duties done, what kind affections shown. + Untimely knowledge! bought at heavy cost, + When what we might have better used, is lost. + + * * * * * + +Wanting to have a friend is altogether different from wanting to be a +friend. The former is a mere natural human craving, the other is the life +of Christ in the soul. + + * * * * * + + My friend peers in on me with merry + Wise face, and though the sky stay dim, + The very light of day, the very + Sun’s self comes in with him. + + —A. C. Swinburne. + + * * * * * + + Walking here, in twilight, O my friends, + I hear your voices, softened by the distance, + And pause, and turn to listen, as each sends + His words of friendship, comfort, and assistance. + + —Longfellow. + + * * * * * + +We can never replace a friend. When a man is fortunate enough to have +several, he finds they are all different. No one has a double in +friendship. + + —Schiller. + + * * * * * + +“What is the secret of your life?” asked Mrs. Browning of Charles +Kingsley; “tell me, that I may make mine beautiful too.” He replied, “I +had a friend.” + + * * * * * + +What we usually call friends are only acquaintances and familiarities +brought together through some particular occasion or use, by which some +little intercourse exists between our souls; but in the friendship of +which I speak they are so tightly joined together one to the other, in so +universal a mixture, that it effaces all signs of the seam by which they +were first joined. + + —Montaigne. + + * * * * * + + We just shake hands at meeting + With many that come nigh; + We nod the head in greeting + To many that go by. + But welcome through the gateway + Our few old friends and true; + The hearts leap up and straightway + There’s open house for you, + Old friends, + There’s open house for you. + + —Massey. + + * * * * * + +Whatever the number of a man’s friends, there will be times in his life +when he has one too few; but if he has only one enemy, he is lucky indeed +if he has not one too many. + + —Lytton. + + * * * * * + +He who forsakes a friend is himself forsaken of the Gods. + + —Klopstock. + + * * * * * + +There are many moments in friendship, as in love, when silence is beyond +words. The faults of our friend may be clear to us, but it is well to +seem to shut our eyes to them. Friendship is usually treated by the +majority of mankind as a tough and everlasting thing which will survive +all manner of bad treatment. But this is an exceedingly great and foolish +error; it may die in an hour of a single unwise word; its condition of +existence is that it should be dealt with delicately and tenderly, being +as it is a sensitive plant and not a roadside thistle. We must not expect +our friend to be above humanity. + + —Ouida. + + * * * * * + + Come friend, my fire is burning bright, + A fire’s no longer out of place, + How clear it glows (there’s frost to-night) + It looks white winter in the face. + + Be mine the tree that feeds the fire! + Be mine, the sun knows when to set! + Be mine, the months when friends desire + To turn in here from cold and wet! + + —Constable. + + * * * * * + +’Tis as hard to be a good fellow, a good friend, and a lover of women, as +’tis to be a good fellow, and a good friend, and a lover of money. + + —Wycherley. + + * * * * * + +Two people cannot strike hands together, unless with a feeling of +disagreeable resolve, and not gain something; perhaps the most treasured +influence of their lives. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +One friend of tried value is better than many of no account. + + —Anacharsis. + + * * * * * + + And friendship’s rainbow-promise fair, + Of hope and faith-crowned ties, + Doth find too soon that everywhere + A touch of discord lies. + + —Freiberger. + + * * * * * + + How often, when life’s summer day + Is waning, and its sun descends; + Wisdom drives laughing wit away, + And lovers shrivel into friends. + + —Landor. + + * * * * * + +The comfort of having a friend may be taken away, but not that of having +had one. + + —Seneca. + + * * * * * + + I have heard you say, + That we shall see and know our friends in heaven. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +The youth of friendship is better than its old age. + + —Hazlitt. + + * * * * * + +If the friendships of the good be interrupted, their minds admit of no +long change; as when the stalks of a lotus are broken the filaments +within them are more visibly cemented. + + —Hitopadesa. + + * * * * * + +In life it is difficult to say who do you the most mischief—enemies with +the worst intentions or friends with the best. + + —Lytton. + + * * * * * + +He who would enjoy many friends, and live happy in this world, should be +deaf, dumb, and blind to the follies and vices of it. + + —Edward Moore. + + * * * * * + +Some of the firmest friendships have been contracted between persons +of different dispositions, the mind being often pleased with those +perfections which are new to it, and which it does not find among its own +accomplishments. + + —Budgell. + + * * * * * + +Old friends are the great blessing of one’s later years. Half a word +conveys one’s meaning. They have a memory of the same events, and have +the same mode of thinking. I have young relations that may grow upon me, +for my nature is affectionate, but can they grow old friends? + + —Walpole. + + * * * * * + +True, it is most painful not to meet the kindness and affection you +feel you have deserved, and have a right to expect from others; but it +is a mistake to complain of it; for it is of no use; you cannot extort +friendship with a cocked pistol. + + —Smith. + + * * * * * + +The ruins of old friendships are a more melancholy spectacle to me than +those of desolated palaces. They exhibit the heart that was once lighted +up with joy all damp and deserted, and haunted by those birds of ill-omen +that only nestle in ruins. + + —Campbell. + + * * * * * + + Still, Love a summer sunrise shines, + So rich its clouds are hung, + So sweet its songs are sung. + And Friendship’s but broad, common day, + With light enough to show + Where fruit with brambles grow; + With warmth enough to feed + The grain of daily need. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + + Never yet + Was noble man but made ignoble talk. + He makes no friend who never made a foe. + + —Tennyson. + + * * * * * + +He that hath gained a friend hath given hostages to fortune. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + + If your friend has got a heart, + There is something fine in him; + Cast away his darker part,— + Cling to what’s divine in him. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +There is naught so characteristic of man, nor which clothes him with such +excellent dignity, as his capacity for loyalty and stable friendship. + + —Dach. + + * * * * * + +The parting of friends united by sympathetic tastes, is always painful; +and friends, unless their sympathy subsist, had much better never meet. + + —Disraeli. + + * * * * * + +We were friends from the first moment. Sincere attachments usually begin +at the beginning. + + —Jefferson. + + * * * * * + + Friends are like melons; shall I tell you why? + To find one good you must a hundred try. + + —Mermet. + + * * * * * + + Freeze, freeze, thou bitter sky, + Thou dost not bite so nigh + As benefits forgot: + Though thou the waters warp, + Thy sting is not so sharp, + As friend remember’d not. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + + A poet might sing you his sweetest of songs, + But this must the poet have known: + Of the heart whose love to you only belongs, + Whose strength would be spent to save you from wrongs, + Of a soul knit to yours with the mightiest thongs, + And sing them for you alone! + + An artist might paint you a picture fair + That would equal the greatest known; + But the heart of a friend, to do and to dare, + To save you from sorrow, and trial, and care, + Is something an artist, paint he ever so rare, + Has never on canvas shown! + + * * * * * + + Ye who have scorned each other + Or injured friend or brother, + In this fast fading year; + Ye who, by word or deed, + Have made a kind heart bleed, + Come gather here. + + Let sinned against, and sinning + Forget their strife’s beginning, + And join in friendship now; + Be links no longer broken, + Be sweet forgiveness spoken, + Under the Holly Bough. + + Ye who have nourished sadness + Estranged from hope and gladness, + In this fast fading year; + Ye, with o’erburdened mind, + Made aliens from your kind, + Come gather here. + + —Mackay. + + * * * * * + +A more glorious victory cannot be gained over another than this, that +when the injury began on his part, the kindness should begin on ours. + + —Tillotson. + + * * * * * + +Like alone acts upon him. Therefore, do not amend by reasoning, but by +example; approach feeling by feeling; do not hope to excite love except +by love. Be what you wish others to become. Let yourself and not your +words preach. + + —Amiel. + + * * * * * + + Why is my verse so barren of new pride? + So far from variation or quick change? + Why, with the time do I not glance aside + To new-found methods and to compounds strange? + Why write I still all one, ever the same, + And keep invention in a noted weed, + That every word doth almost tell my name, + Showing their birth and where they did proceed? + O, know, sweet love, I always write of you, + And you and love are still my argument: + So all my best is dressing old words new, + Spending again what is already spent; + For as the sun is daily new and old, + So is my love still telling what is told. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + + How oft as we sat ’round the board, + My dear old friends and I, + We drew from Memory’s sweet, sad hoard, + Enough to make us sigh. + And merry wit was silenced there, + By some vague haunting thought, + Which seemed to fill the very air, + Around, unbid, unsought. + + And so may this sweet, happy hour, + My dear new friends, I pray, + Be like some book-pressed fragile flower, + That Youth has lain away; + But when life’s book is widely spread, + This sweet but faded hour, + Will bring sad thoughts of moments fled, + As does the wilted flower. + + * * * * * + + I never did repent for doing good, + Nor shall not now; for in companions + That do converse and waste the time together, + Whose souls to bear an equal yoke of love, + There must be needs a like proportion + Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + + How say ye “We loved once,” + Blasphemers—Is your earth not cold enow, + Mourners, without that snow? + Ah, friends, and would ye wrong each other so? + And could ye say of some whose love is known, + Whose prayers have met your own, + Whose tears have fallen for you, whose smiles have shone + So long,—“We loved them ONCE”? + + —E. B. Browning. + + * * * * * + + The strong necessity of time commands + Our services awhile; but my full heart + Remains in use with you. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +Self-denial, for the sake of self-denial, does no good; self-sacrifice +for its own sake is no religious act at all.... Self-sacrifice, +illuminated by love, is warmth and life, the blessedness and the only +proper life of man. + + —Robertson. + + * * * * * + + I think that good must come of good, + And ill of evil—surely unto all + In every place or time, seeing sweet fruit + Groweth from wholesome roots, or bitter things + From poison stocks: yea, seeing, too, how spite + Breeds hate—and kindness friends—or patience peace. + + —Arnold. + + * * * * * + + Unfading joys thy lot should crown, + If lips like mine could call them down. + + —Wilson. + + * * * * * + +Intreat me not to leave thee, or to return from following after thee: for +whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy +people shall be my people, and thy God my God. Where thou diest, I will +die, and there will I be buried; the Lord do so to me, and more also, if +aught but death part thee and me. + + —Ruth to Naomi. + + * * * * * + + But of your goodness pray to this give heed, + That friendship doth in friendship find its meed. + + * * * * * + + Let thy name + Dwell ever in my heart and on my lips, + Theme of my lyre and burden of my song. + + —Ovid. + + * * * * * + + Some love the glow of outward show, + Some love mere wealth, and try to win it; + The house to me may lowly be, + If I but like the people in it. + + What’s all the gold that glitters sold, + When linked to hard or haughty feeling? + Whate’er we’re told, the nobler gold + Is truth of heart and manly dealing. + + Then let them seek, whose minds are weak, + Mere fashion’s smile, and try to win it; + The house to me may lowly be, + If I but like the people in it. + + —Swain. + + * * * * * + +There is no such certain evidence of friendship as never to overlook +the sins and failings of our brethren. Hast thou seen them at enmity? +Reconcile them. Hast thou seen them set on unlawful gain? Check them. +Hast thou seen them wronged? Stand up in their defense. It is not on +them but on thyself thou art conferring the chief benefit. It is for +this purpose that we are friends—that we may be of good service to +one another. A man will listen in a different spirit to a friend. An +indifferent person he will regard perhaps with suspicion, and so in like +manner an instructor, but not so a true friend. + + —St. Chrysostom. + + * * * * * + +Friendship, love and piety, ought to be handled with a sort of mysterious +secrecy; they ought to be spoken of only in the rare moments of perfect +confidence. + + —Novalis. + + * * * * * + +I weigh my friend’s affection with mine own. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +As ships meet at sea,—a moment together, when words of greeting must be +spoken, and then away upon the deep,—so men meet in this world; and I +think we should cross no man’s path without hailing him, and if he needs, +give him supplies. + + —Henry Ward Beecher. + + * * * * * + +Are we ever truly read, save by the one that loves us best? Love is +blind, the phrase runs. Nay, I would rather say, love sees as God sees, +and with infinite wisdom has infinite pardon. + + —Ouida. + + * * * * * + + As earth pours freely to the sea + Her thousand streams of wealth untold + Glad that its very sands are gold. + So flows my silent life to thee. + + * * * * * + +The best conduct a man can adopt is that which gains him the esteem of +others without depriving him of his own. + + —Talmud. + + * * * * * + +And the finest fellow of all would be the one who could be glad to have +lived because the world was chiefly miserable, and his life had come to +help some one who needed it. + + —Eliot. + + * * * * * + + Talk not of wasted affection, + Affection never was wasted; + If it enrich not the heart of another, + Its water returning + Back to their springs, like the rain, + Shall fill them full of refreshment; + That which the fountain sends forth + Returns again to the fountain. + + —Longfellow. + + * * * * * + +Beyond all wealth, honour, or even health, is the attachment we form to +noble souls; because to become one with the good, generous, and true, is +to become in a measure good, generous, and true, ourselves. + + —Arnold. + + * * * * * + + They who love best need friendship most, + Hearts only thrive on varied good; + And he who gathers from a host + Of friendly hearts his daily food, + Is the best friend that we can boast. + + —Holland. + + * * * * * + + And so farewell! perchance on Earth + God’s finger—as ’twixt thee and me— + Will never make that wonder clear + Why thus it drew me unto thee. + + —Memnon. + + * * * * * + + Yes, we must ever be friends; and of all who offer you friendship + Let me be ever the first, the truest, the nearest and dearest. + + —Longfellow. + + * * * * * + +We become like those whom we habitually admire. + + —Drummond. + + * * * * * + + Have love; not love alone for one, + But man as man thy brother call, + And scatter like the circling sun + Thy charities on all. + + —Schiller. + + * * * * * + +I come here as your friend,—I am your friend. + + —Longfellow. + + * * * * * + +Do not form friendships hastily, but once formed hold fast to them. It is +equally discreditable to have no friends, and to be always changing one’s +acquaintances. + + * * * * * + +It takes a lifetime of close intimacies to convince each of us, of our +absolute, essential loneliness; to make us feel that speech is only +clamour, that intercourse only means points of contact, that solitude is +often our only substitute for peace. + + —Esler. + + * * * * * + + Only a shelter for my head I sought, + One stormy winter night; + To me the blessing of my life was brought, + Making the whole world bright. + How shall I thank thee for a gift so sweet, + O dearest Heavenly Friend? + I sought a resting-place for weary feet, + And found my journey’s end. + + Only the latchet of a friendly door + My timid fingers tried; + A loving heart, with all its precious store, + To me was opened wide. + I asked for shelter from the passing shower,— + My sun shall always shine! + I would have sat beside the hearth one hour,— + And the whole heart was mine! + + —Ruckert. + + * * * * * + +Friends! I have but one, and he, I hear, is not in town; nay, can have +but one friend, for a true heart admits of but one friendship as of one +love. But in having that friend I have a thousand. + + —Wycherley. + + * * * * * + + We have been friends together, + In sunshine and in shade; + Since first beneath the chestnut trees + In infancy we play’d. + But coldness dwells within my heart— + A cloud is on thy brow; + We have been friends together— + Shall a light word part us now? + + We have been gay together; + We have laugh’d at little jests; + For the fount of hope was gushing, + Warm and joyous in our breasts. + But laughter now hath fled thy lip, + And sullen glooms thy brow; + We have been gay together— + Shall a light word part us now? + + We have been sad together— + We have wept with bitter tears, + O’er the grass grown graves, where slumber’d + The hopes of early years. + The voices which are silent there + Would bid thee clear thy brow; + We have been sad together— + O what shall part us now? + + —Norton. + + * * * * * + + For every leaf the loveliest flower, + Which beauty sighs for from her bower— + For every star a drop of dew— + For every sun a sky of blue— + For every heart, a heart as true. + + —Bailey. + + * * * * * + + Alas! they had been friends in youth; + But whispering tongues can poison truth: + And constancy lives in realms above; + And life is thorny, and youth is vain; + And to be wroth with one we love, + Doth work like madness in the brain. + And thus it chanced, as I divine, + With Roland and Sir Leoline. + Each spake words of high disdain + And insult to his heart’s best brother: + They parted—ne’er to meet again! + But never either found another; + To free the hollow heart from paining— + They stood aloof, the scars remaining, + Like cliffs which had been rent asunder; + A dreary sea now flows between, + But neither heat, nor frost, nor thunder, + Shall wholly do away, I ween, + The marks of that which once hath been. + + —Coleridge. + + * * * * * + + When to the sessions of sweet silent thought + I summon up remembrance of things past, + I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought, + And with old woes new wail my dear time’s waste; + Then can I drown an eye, unused to flow, + For precious friends hid in death’s dateless night, + And weep afresh love’s long since cancell’d woe, + And moan the expense of many a vanish’d sight; + Then can I grieve at grievances foregone, + And heavily from woe to woe tell o’er + The sad account of fore-bemoan’ed moan, + Which I new pay as if not paid before. + But if the while I think on thee, dear Friend, + All losses are restored, and sorrows end. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + + Since we deserved the name of friends, + And thine effect so lives in me, + A part of mine may live in thee + And move thee on to noble ends. + + —Tennyson. + + * * * * * + +Love is the greatest of human affections, and friendship the noblest and +most refined improvement of love. + + * * * * * + + Sheik Schubli, taken sick, was borne one day + Unto the hospital. A host the way + Behind him thronged. “Who are you?” Schubli cried. + “We are your friends,” the multitude replied. + Sheik Schubli threw a stone at them; they fled. + “Come back, ye false pretenders!” then he said; + “A friend is one who, ranked among his foes, + By him he loves, and stoned, and beat with blows, + Will still remain as friendly as before, + And to his friendship only add the more.” + + —Alger, from Jamee. + + * * * * * + +In all misfortunes the greatest consolation is a sympathizing friend. + + —Cervantes. + + * * * * * + + Friendship is constant in all other things + Save in the office and affairs of love. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + + Ah, how good it feels, + The hand of an old friend! + + —Longfellow. + + * * * * * + +The poor, the humble, and your dependents, will often be afraid to ask +their dues from you; be the more mindful of it yourself. + + —Helps. + + * * * * * + +In pure friendship there is a sensation of felicity which only the +well-bred can attain. + + —La Bruyere. + + * * * * * + + Hitherto doth love on fortune tend; + For who not needs shall never lack a friend. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +Such help as we can give each other in this world is a debt we owe each +other. + + —Ruskin. + + * * * * * + + Keep your undrest, familiar style + For strangers, but respect your friend. + + —Patmore. + + * * * * * + + Let our old acquaintance be renewed. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + + Here is a dear, a true industrious friend. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +The books for young people say a great deal about the selection of +friends; it is because they really have nothing to say about friends. +They mean associates and confidents merely. Friendship takes place +between those who have an affinity for one another, and is a perfectly +natural and inevitable result. No professions or advances will avail. + + —Thoreau. + + * * * * * + + Ah, friend, let us be true + To one another! For the world, which seems + To lie before us like a land of dreams, + So various, so beautiful, so new, + Hath really neither joy, nor love, nor light, + Nor certitude, nor peace, nor help for pain; + And we are here as on a darkling plain + Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight, + Where ignorant armies clash by night. + + —Arnold. + + * * * * * + + Who in want a hollow friend doth try, + Directly seasons him his enemy. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +First of all things for friendship there must be that delightful, +indefinable state called feeling at ease with your companion,—the one +man, the one woman out of a multitude who interests you, meets your +thoughts and tastes. + + —Duhring. + + * * * * * + +One whom I knew intimately, and whose memory I revere, once in my hearing +remarked that, “unless we love people we cannot understand them.” This +was a new light to me. + + —Rossetti. + + * * * * * + + I can nothing render but allegiant thanks + My prayers to Heaven for you, my loyalty, + Which ever has, and ever shall be, growing, + Till death, that winter, kill it. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +A man’s love is the measure of his fitness for good or bad company here +or elsewhere. Men are tattooed with their special beliefs, like so many +South Sea Islanders; but a real human heart with divine love in it, beats +with the same glow under all patterns of all earth’s thousand tribes. + + —Holmes. + + * * * * * + +The love of man to woman is a thing common and of course, and at first +partakes more of instinct and passion than of choice; but true friendship +between man and man is infinite and immortal. + + —Plato. + + * * * * * + +It is a sad thing that there comes a moment when misery unknots +friendships. There were two friends; there are two passersby! + + —Hugo. + + * * * * * + + Too late we learn—a man must hold his friend + Unjudged, accepted, faultless to the end. + + —O’Reilly. + + * * * * * + +For, believe me, in this world, which is ever slipping from under our +feet, it is the prerogative of friendship to grow old with one’s friend. + + —Hardy. + + * * * * * + +A common friendship—Who talks of a common friendship? There is no such +thing in the world. On earth no word is more sublime. + + —Drummond. + + * * * * * + +Friendship survives death better than absence. + + —Senn. + + * * * * * + +When friendship goes with love it must play second fiddle. + + * * * * * + + The earth to the songs of the poet + Resounds in a deathless tune, + Though hearts be upon or below it— + Though the Winter be here or the June. + Of the numberless songs that are ringing, + Let the cadence of one song flow + For the Aprils fled and the living and dead— + The friends of the Long Ago. + + —Hale. + + * * * * * + +Devotion to a friend does not consist in doing everything for him, but +simply that which is agreeable, and of service to him, and let it only be +revealed by accident. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +Never to have encountered a constancy equal to one’s own is tragic. + + * * * * * + +The ring of coin is often the knell of friendship. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + +The sweet sincerity of joy and peace which I draw from this alliance with +my brother’s soul, is the nut itself, whereof all nature and all thought +is but the husk and shell. Happy is the house that shelters a friend! +It might well be built, like a festal bower or arch, to entertain him a +single day. Happier, if he know the solemnity of that relation, and honor +its law. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + + Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend, + And round his dwelling guardian saints attend; + Blest be that spot where cheerful guests retire + To pause from toil, and trim their evening fire; + Blest that abode where want and pain repair, + And every stranger finds a ready chair; + Blest be those feasts with simple plenty crowned, + With all the ruddy family around. + + —Goldsmith. + + * * * * * + + What matters if the years depart if + Friendship stays unchanged. + + —Bingham. + + * * * * * + + And when two souls are changed and mixed so, + It is what they and none but they can do. + This, this is friendship, that abstracted flame + Which grovelling mortals know not how to name. + + —Philips. + + * * * * * + +By friendship I mean the greatest love and the greatest usefulness, and +the most open communication, and the most noble sufferings, and the +most exemplary faithfulness, and the severest truth, and the heartiest +counsel, and the greatest union of mind, of which brave men and women are +capable. + + —Taylor. + + * * * * * + + Loved wilt thou be? then love must first by thee be given; + No purchase money else avails beneath the heaven. + + —Trench. + + * * * * * + + Friendship is not like love; it cannot say, + “Now is fruition give me and now + The crown of me is set on mine own brow, + This is the minute, the hour, and the day.” + It cannot find a moment which it may + Call that for which it lived; there is no vow, + Nor pledge thereof, nor first-fruits of its bough, + Nor harvest, and no myrtle crown nor bay. + + * * * * * + +I wonder if there is anything in this world as beautiful as good strong +friendship between two men? They don’t go round doing the molly coddle +act; they don’t kiss each other every time they meet; in fact, they never +do kiss each other, unless one is lying cold in death; but they are sure +one knows the other is always going to stand by him, and they feel that, +no matter what happiness, each can rely on the other. + + —Unknown. + + * * * * * + + Others will kiss you while your mouth is red; + Beauty is brief. Of all the guests who come + When the lamps shine on flowers, and wine, and bread, + In time of famine who will spare a crumb? + Therefore, oh, next to God I pray you, keep + Yourself as your own friend, the tried, the true, + Sit your own watch—others will surely sleep, + Weep your own tears, ask none to die with you. + + —Piatt. + + * * * * * + +The end of friendship is a commerce the most strict and homely that can +be joined; more strict than any of which we have experience. It is for +aid and comfort through all the relations and passages of life and death. +It is fit for serene days, and graceful gifts, and country rambles, but +also for rough roads and hard fare, ship-wreck, poverty, and persecution. +It keeps company with the sallies of wit and the trances of religion. We +are to dignify to each other the daily needs and offices of man’s life, +and embellish it by courage, wisdom and unity. It should never fall into +something usual and settled, but should be alert and inventive and add +rhyme and reason to what was drudgery. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + + Give love, and love to your heart will flow, + A strength in your inmost need; + Have faith, and a score of hearts will show + Their faith in your word and deed. + + * * * * * + +It is the men and women who believe most, and love best, that win most +love. + + —Kendall. + + * * * * * + +If you visit love, kindness, tenderness upon others, what ye mete is +measured to you. + + —Clarkson. + + * * * * * + +A friend that you have to buy won’t be worth what you pay for him, no +matter what that may be. + + —Prentice. + + * * * * * + +The only true and firm friendship is that between man and woman, because +it is the only affection exempt from actual or possible rivalry. + + —A. Comte. + + * * * * * + +To practice a deception is almost to commit a crime. The flow of kindness +thus driven back is withdrawn from others whom it might have benefited. + + —Carmen Sylva. + + * * * * * + +Love, and you shall be loved. All love is mathematically just, as much as +the two sides of an algebraic equation. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + + Absent or present, still to thee, + My friend, what magic spells belong! + As all can tell, who share like me, + In turn thy converse and thy song. + + —Byron. + + * * * * * + + True happiness + Consists not in the multitude of friends, + But in their worth and choice. + + —Jonson. + + * * * * * + +Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes: they +were easiest for his feet. + + —Seldon. + + * * * * * + + Friendship’s an abstract of Love’s noble flame, + ’Tis love refined, and purged from all its dross, + ’Tis next to angel’s love, if not the same, + As strong as passion is, though not so gross. + It antedates a glad eternity + And is a heaven in epitome. + + —Philips. + + * * * * * + + Distill’d amidst the gloom of night, + Dark hangs the dew-drop on the thorn; + Till, notic’d by approaching light, + It glitters in the smile of morn. + + Morn soon retires, her feeble pow’r + The sun out-beams with genial day, + And gently, in benignant hour, + Exhales the liquid pearl away. + + Thus on affliction’s sable bed + Deep sorrows rise of saddest hue; + Condensing round the mourner’s head + They bathe the cheek with chilly dew. + + Though pity shows her dawn from heaven, + When kind she points assistance near, + To friendship’s sun alone ’tis given + To soothe and dry the mourner’s tear. + + —Penrose. + + * * * * * + +Association with others is useful also in strengthening the character, +and in enabling us, while we never lose sight of our main object, to +thread our way wisely and well. + + —S. Smiles. + + * * * * * + + What is a friend? one who in Fortune’s rays + Would bask with us as on a sun-kissed strand, + Beside a tranquil sea, whose restful sand + Glistens as gold to woo the passer’s gaze, + But who, should Sorrow’s clouds bedim our days + And angry winds, at adverse fate’s command, + Drive our life’s barque against a barren land, + A sudden zeal for other skies displays? + Or he who, like a valiant knight of yore, + When Summer yields to Winter’s icy breath + Or Mirth’s gay laughter to the tears of Woe, + Champions our cause, ne’er fearful of the foe, + True to the legend which his pennon bore, + SEMPER FIDELIS till the call of Death? + + —Norman. + + * * * * * + +The essence of friendship is entireness, a total magnanimity and trust. + + * * * * * + + A look—and lo our natures meet! + A word—our minds make one reply! + A touch—our hearts have but one beat! + And if we walk together—why + The same thought guides our feet. + + Heed well our friends while yet we may! + There are so many winds about, + And any wind may blow away + Love’s airy child. O! never doubt + He is the common prey. + + O! every chance while love remains + And every chance while he survives, + Is something added to love’s gains; + Comfort our friend while yet he lives! + Dead what shall pay our pains? + + —Meredith. + + * * * * * + + Oh say, and again repeat, fair, fair—and still I will say it— + How fair, my friend, and good to see thou art, + On pine or oak or wall thy name I do not blazon— + Love has too deeply graved it in my heart. + + —Greek Epigram. + + * * * * * + + I breathed a song into the air, + It fell to earth, I knew not where; + For who has sight so keen and strong, + That it can follow the flight of a song; + ... + The song from beginning to end, + I found again in the heart of a friend. + + —Longfellow. + + * * * * * + + Old friends to talk:— + Ay, bring those chosen few, + The wise, the courtly, and the true + So rarely found. + + —Messinger. + + * * * * * + +It is by loving, and not by being loved, that one can come nearest to the +soul of another. Where two love, it is the loving of each other, and not +the being loved by each other, that originates, perfects, and assures +their blessedness. + + —MacDonald. + + * * * * * + +It is useless to demand affection: the thing for us to do is to bestow +affection, to serve, to be a friend to others, and, lo! by and by friends +come to us. + + —Merriam. + + * * * * * + + O friendship, equal-poised control, + O heart, with kindest motion warm, + O sacred essence, other form, + O solemn ghost, O crowned soul. + + —Tennyson. + + * * * * * + +Happy that man who has a friend to point out to him the perfection of +duty, and yet to pardon him in the lapses of his infirmity. + + —South. + + * * * * * + + This must my comfort be, + That sun that warms you here shall shine on me. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + + God’s benison go with you; and with those + That would make good of bad, and friends of foes. + + —Shakespeare. + + * * * * * + +A faithful friend is better than gold—a medicine for misery, an only +possession. + + —Burton. + + * * * * * + + Come to me; what I seek in vain + Bring thou; into my spirit send + Peace after care, balm after pain, + And be my friend. + + —F. Tennyson. + + * * * * * + +As gold is tried by the furnace, and the baser metal shown, so the +hollow-hearted friend is known by adversity. + + —Metastasio. + + * * * * * + + A friendship as had mastered time: + Which masters time indeed, and is + Eternal, separate from fears: + The all-assuming months and years, + Can take no part away from this. + + —Tennyson. + + * * * * * + + Beauty, Good, and Knowledge are three sisters + That dote upon each other, friends to man, + Living together under the same roof, + And never can be sunder’d without tears. + And he that shuts Love out, in turn shall be + Shut out from Love, and on her threshold lie + Howling in outer darkness. + + —Tennyson. + + * * * * * + + Each year to ancient friendships adds a ring, + As to an oak, and precious more and more, + Without deservingness, or help of ours + They grow, and silent, wider spread each year + Their unbought ring of shelter or of shade. + + —Lowell. + + * * * * * + + The song-bird seeks its nest, + The sun sinks in the West— + And kindly thoughts are speeding out to you. + May joy with you abide, + May Hope be aye your guide, + And Love protect you, all life’s journey through. + + —Burnside. + + * * * * * + + Friendship, a dear balm— + Whose coming is as light and music are + Mid dissonance and gloom:—a star + Which moves not mid the moving heavens alone; + A smile among dark frowns; a beloved light; + A solitude, a refuge, a delight. + + —Shelley. + + * * * * * + +Nothing delights the mind so much as true and sweet friendship. What a +blessing it is when there are hearts prepared for you in which every +secret rests securely, whose knowledge you fear less than your own, whose +conversation calms your anxieties, whose opinion aids your plan, whose +mirth dispels your sorrow, and whose very sight delights you. + + —Seneca. + + * * * * * + +All faithful friends, and many friendships, in the days of time begun, +are lasting here and growing still. + + —Pollok. + + * * * * * + +The man who prefers his dearest friend to the call of duty will soon show +that he prefers himself to his dearest friend. + + —Robertson. + + * * * * * + + Friendship is the holiest of gifts; + God can bestow nothing more sacred upon us! + It enhances every joy, mitigates every pain. + Everyone can have a friend, + Who himself knows how to be a friend. + + —Tiedge. + + * * * * * + + Much beautiful and excellent and fair + Was seen beneath the sun; but nought was seen + More beautiful or excellent or fair + Than face of faithful friend, fairest when seen + In darkest day. And many sounds were sweet, + Most ravishing and pleasant to the ear; + But sweeter none than voice of faithful friend, + Sweet always, sweetest heard in loudest storm. + + —Pollok. + + * * * * * + +Respect so far the holy laws of this fellowship as not to prejudice its +perfect flower by your impatience for its opening. We must be our own +before we can be another’s. + + —Emerson. + + * * * * * + +Nature loves nothing solitary, and always reaches out to something as a +support, which ever in the sincerest friend is most delightful. + + —Cicero. + + * * * * * + + Some I remember, and will ne’er forget + My early friends, friends of my evil day; + Friends in my mirth, friends in my misery too, + Friends given by God in mercy and in love; + My counsellors, my comforters, and guides; + My joy in grief, my second bliss in joy; + Companions of my young desires; in doubt + My oracles; my wings in high pursuit. + Oh, I remember, and will ne’er forget + Our meeting spots, our chosen sacred hours; + Our burning words that utter’d all the soul; + Our faces beaming with unearthly love; + Sorrow with sorrow sighing, hope with hope + Exulting, heart embracing heart entire. + + —R. Pollok. + + * * * * * + +Gold can be tried by fire and the good-will of friends by time is tested. + + —Menander. + + * * * * * + + My friend, with thee to live alone, + Methinks were better than to own + A crown, a sceptre, and a throne. + + —Anon. + + * * * * * + + Where true love bestows its sweetness, + Where true friendship lays its hand, + Dwells all greatness, all completeness, + All the wealth of every land. + + —Holland. + + * * * * * + +Occasionally the choicest companions are somewhat dull, especially when +they are happy and at ease in each other’s society. + + —Arthur Helps. + + * * * * * + + Friendship, of itself a holy tie, + Is made more sacred by adversity. + + —Dryden. + + * * * * * + +I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with roughest courage. +When they are real, they are not glass threads or frostwork, but the +solidest thing we know. + + * * * * * + +Friendship, I fancy, means one heart between two. + + —Meredith. + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75263 *** |