“Have no friends not equal to yourself.”
– Confucious (551 – 497 BC) Chinese philosopher.

“Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends.”
– Jacques Delille (1738 – 1813) French poet.

“A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 – 1882) US poet & essayist.

“Keep your friendships in repair.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson (as above)

“A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

“If a man does not make new acquaintance as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone. A man, Sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.”
– Samuel Johnson (1709 – 1784) British lexiographer.

“True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in their worth and choice.”
– Samuel Johnston, (as above)

“It is more shameful to distrust one’s friends than to be deceived by them.”
– Duc de la Rochefoucauld (1613 – 1680) French writer.

“If it is abuse – why one is always sure to here of it from one damned good-natured friend or other!”
– Richard Brinsley Sheridan (1751 – 1816) British dramatist.

“Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for ’tis better to be alone than in bad company.”
– George Washington (1732 – 1799) US Statesman.

“True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.”
– George Washington, (as above)