One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

The best time to make friends is before you need them.

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

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

Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

Even where friendship is concerned, it takes me a long time to trust people.

Caring for but never trying to own may be a further way to define friendship.

Friendship is the shadow of the evening, which increases with the setting sun of life.

Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.

Our friends interpret the world and ourselves to us, if we take them tenderly and truly.