Never make friends with people who are above or below you in status. Such friendships will never give you any happiness.

Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

In friendship as well as love, ignorance very often contributes more to our happiness than knowledge.

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

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

One's friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.

It is important to our friends to believe that we are unreservedly frank with them, and important to friendship that we are not.

It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.

Peace, commerce and honest friendship with all nations entangling alliances with none.

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