Friendship Sayings and Quotes

In both good and bad times, life is a journey best shared with friends. Enjoy this collection of wise, insightful, and humorous quotes on friendship, and consider passing them along to your best bud.

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
Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit. Aristotle
Hold a true friend with both your hands. Nigerian Proverb
A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. Walter Winchell
The wise man learns more from his enemies than the fool does from his friends. Baltasar Gracian
Misfortune tests the sincerity of friends. Aesop
The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. Elisabeth Foley
Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over. Octvaia Butler
Who is mighty? He who makes an enemy into a friend. Hebrew (on friends and foes)
One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Keep your friendships in repair. Samuel Butler
Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. Khalil Gibran
We're born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we're not alone. Orson Welles
Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together. Woodrow Wilson
Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. Anais Nin
Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing Elie Wiesel
Most of us don't need a psychiatric therapist as much as a friend to be silly with. Robert Brault
The language of friendship is not words but meanings. Henry David Thoreau
To have a few amazing friends on this side of eternity, this sometimes grotesque amusement park, is the greatest joy. Ann Lamott
A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they're not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they're not so bad. Arnold Glasgow
I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light. Helen Keller
Friends are God's way of taking care of us. Anonymous
A true friend is the best Possession. Benjamin Franklin
Friendship increases by visiting friends but visiting seldom. Benjamin Franklin
Friendship is one mind in two bodies. Mencius
Keep your friends close, your enemies even closer. Sun Tzu
Make a friend when you don't need one. Jamaican (on friendship)
No better relation than a prudent and faithful friend. Benjamin Franklin
One enemy is too many and a hundred friends too few. Anonymous
Little friends may prove great friends. Aesop
Strangers are just friends waiting to happen. Rod McKuen
The best mirror is an old friend. George Herbert
The road to a friend's house is never long. Danish Proverb
The wolf and the dog agree, at the expense of the goat which together they eat. Basque (on friends and foes)
When I eat your bread, I sing your song. German (on friendship)
You never really know your friends from your enemies until the ice breaks. Eskimo (on friends and foes)
There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship. Thomas Aquinas
A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself. Jim Morrison
Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness. Euripedes
Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . . CS Lewis
Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend. Albert Camus
A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. Elbert Hubbard
Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend. Sarah Dessen
It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. Marlene Dietrich
Friendship isn't a big thing it's a million little things. Unknown Author
In everyone's life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit. Albert Schweitzer
Friendship is like money, easier made than kept. Samuel Butler
There are some people in life that make you laugh a little louder, smile a little bigger, and live just a little bit better. Unknown Author
Good friends help you find important things when you have lost them. Your smile, you hope, and your courage. Unknown Author
True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable. David Tyson Gentry
Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives and remembering what one receives. Alexander Dumas
I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. Plutarch
The truth is, everyone is going to hurt you. You just got to find the ones worth suffering for. Bob Marley
To find a friend one must close one eye. To keep him—close two. Norman Douglas
[Friends are] God’s apology for relations. Hugh Kingsmill
It may be more difficult to make new friends as you get older but it is some consolation to know how easy it is to lose them when you are young. Jeffrey Bernard
Thank you for being a friend / Traveled down a road and back again / Your heart is true, you're a pal and a confidant. Andrew Gold
What would you think if I sang out of tune? / Would you stand up and walk out on me? / Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song / And I'll try not to sing out of key / Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends. Paul McCartney and John Lennon
For good times and bad times / I'll be on your side forever more / That's what friends are for. Burt Bacharach and Carole Bayer Sager
Two sturdy oaks I mean, which side by side, / Withstand the winter's storm, / And spite of wind and tide, / Grow up the meadow's pride, / For both are strong / Above they barely touch, but undermined / Down to their deepest source, / Admiring you shall find / Their roots are intertwined / Insep'rably. Henry David Thoreau
I was angry with my friend: / I told my wrath, my wrath did end. / I was angry with my foe: / I told it not, my wrath did grow. William Blake
It’s not that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but it’s your best friends who are your diamonds. Gina Barreca
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
What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. Aristotle
A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in the garden. Unknown
No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow. Alice Walker
Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that. Ally Condie
Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life. Amy Poehler
Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them. Anna Taylor
A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down. Arnold H. Glasgow
A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling. Arthur Brisbane
For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone. Audrey Hepburn
A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. Bernard Meltzer
An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind. Buddha
Friends should be like books, few, but hand-selected. C.J. Langenhoven
Friendship is like a glass ornament, once it is broken it can rarely be put back together exactly the same way. Charles Kingsley
Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected. Charles Lamb
One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention. Clifton Fadiman
What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others. Confucius
A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails. Donna Roberts
Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer. Ed Cunningham
There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one’s self, the very meaning of one’s soul. Edith Wharton
Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. Eleanor Roosevelt
True friends don’t judge each other, they judge other people together. Emilie Saint-Genis
I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen. Ernest Hemingway
The best time to make friends is before you need them. Ethel Barrymore
The real test of friendship is can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple? Eugene Kennedy
A friend can tell you things you don’t want to tell yourself. Frances Ward Weller
It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages. Friedrich Nietzsche
Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes. Friedrich Nietzsche
Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. Henry David Thoreau
True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance. Henry David Thoreau
There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met. Jim Henson
In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends. John Churton Collins
In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasure. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. Khalil Gibran
A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world. Leo Buscaglia
A good friend is a connection to life a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. Lois Wyse
Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. Marcel Proust
Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief. Marcus Tullius Cicero
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. Martin Luther King
Friends are the siblings God never gave us. Mencius
Never forget that a true friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are. Noel Jones
Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation. Oscar Wilde
Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success. Oscar Wilde
There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you. Paramahansa Yogananda
A friendship that can end never really began. Publilius Syrus
I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar. Robert Brault
A friend is a gift you give yourself. Robert Louis Stevenson
If you have two friends in your lifetime, you’re lucky. If you have one good friend, you’re more than lucky. S.E. Hinton
The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul. Shanna Rodriguez
Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose. Tennessee Williams
Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up. Thomas J. Watson
Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart. Washington Irving
A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow. William Shakespeare
If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you. Winnie the Pooh