Inspirational and Insightful Quotations #75 - Friendship

Friendship, charity and benevolence bind in one harmonious brotherhood men of all classes and all opinions. The man who understands well the human passions will realize the grandeur of love and friendship. Seek to bind men’s hearts together by the ties of love and friendship, which will make them purer and better men. Love, friendship and justice are to go hand in hand in all walks of life. The unfair use of power, the sharp criticism, the light banter which disparages our intellect, our capacity, our motives, the tone of distrust and suspicion, the readiness to see and to magnify faults and errors, these and similar unjust thoughts, words and acts are the shadows that too often hide real affection in a gloom so thick and impenetrable that it emerges no more forever. Men are made better, and their faults corrected more easily, by kind acts and pleasant words. Have a desire to emulate deeds of all noble lives which have been sacrificed on the altar of friendship. Brotherhood is bound together by friendship’s sweet ties. Deception is a propensity deeply rooted in human nature, some natures bearing a greater proportion of it than others. A man may pretend friendship when he is no friend. We all know that when adversity comes, as it comes to all sometime in life, the test of friendship is upon those who have assured us of fealty. The test will show us that very many of them are but sunshine friends, and they will flee from us like rats from a burning barn, and like the rodents that have lived the highest from the garnered grain and can make the greatest speed from the flames, those who have enjoyed the most sunshine, who have shared the largest in our bounteous liberality, when adversity comes are the first to forsake us, censure and reproach us. Friendship, having nothing but self to support, ends in desertion when the selfish ends are no longer attainable. It is the inner acts of man which are the true measure of life; the kindness that prompts to deeds of mercy; the benevolence that takes form in charity; and, above all, the spirit of true love resident in man, that has sent him forth into the world a messenger of good tidings, God’s almoner of peace. These are the things that make up life. Here is the secret of the influence this friendship has had, and is having today. It is because it realizes the ideal of true life, because it is in accord with the spirit of the perfect age, of which every man’s heart has a prophecy and causes him to recognize a kin in whatever is like it.

---Abner J. Buckles, The Record-Union, Sacramento, Calif., Jan. 9, 1892.

True friendship is a treasure to be highly valued. It is something which money cannot buy. It does not depend upon show of wealth, on position or power, nor upon any outside circumstance. It is the mutual love of two persons who prize worth of character, who value each other for what they are.

The true friend is forbearing and slow to take offense. He can make allowances for the mistakes and shortcomings of the one he loves. He is not suspicious of every act of which he does not at first show the motive. Praise of his friend delights him; abuse of his friend rouses him to defense. He sorrows for the sorrows of his friend and rejoices in his prosperity. He is faithful and loving through all the ups and downs of life. His loving care outlives miles of distance and years of separation.

Have you such a friend? Would you have one? Then be a friend; be true, be trusting, be unselfish. Be to someone else what you would have him be to you. Let no small thing come between you to breed coldness or suspicion. Guard your friendship as a most precious treasure.

---Lucius W. Nieman, Milwaukee Journal, Milwaukee, Wis., Jan. 25, 1912.

Friendship is a treasure that can and should be scattered over this beautiful land and in every home. Let friendship so abound as to make happy and better everyone in your midst. Friendship broadens and uplifts everyone coming in contact with it. Then, too, it is within the reach of every one of us and should be cherished as one of the greatest blessings. How much friendship and kindly greeting can come to make the environment of our land more lovely and attractive is worthy of your thoughtful consideration. But someone says, “How am I to gain that friendship so needful to my happiness, yes, to my life? I aim to do right but most everyone passes me coldly by.” But another voice imbued with that friendship that goes out to make men better says, “Be of good cheer—hold fast to your faith in friendship.” [We are] sure to see the light and beauty that it is speeding up and down the land and I hope centering here among us.” Sincere friendship uplifts and makes happy the soul that receives the friendly greeting.

---Ned Burton, The Free Lance, Fredericksburg, Va., Feb. 25, 1911.

Pure friendship is a bright flame, emitting none of the smoke of selfishness, and its origin is divine, its operation heavenly, and its result enrapturing to the soul.

Let adversity come, and then we will know who are our true friends and brothers. Many will probably be sunshine friends, and when the cloud of poverty and distress hangs over you they will desert you, but that is not true of true friendship. Such friendship should bloom in the heart of each of us.

Again, no one can be truly happy without a friend, and no one can know what friends he has until he is unhappy. Also, where persons are united in the bonds of friendship, there is nothing, perhaps, more conducive to felicity; it supports and strengthens the mind, alleviates the pain, and renders the present state more comfortable.

Friendship is to be benevolent. Friends must study to please each other in the most delicate, kind, and liberal manner, and that in poverty and trouble, as well as in riches or prosperity. And that benevolence is also manifested in overlooking each other’s faults, and in the most tender manner, admonishing each other when they go amiss.

Upon the whole, the purse, the heart, and the house ought to be open to a friend, and in no case can we shut out either of them, unless we have clear proofs of treachery, immorality, or some other great crime, and then we must show mercy.

The first law of friendship is sincerity, and he who violates this law will soon find himself destitute of what he so basely seeks to gain.

For the deceitful heart of such an one will soon betray itself, and feel the contempt of insincerity. The insincere man who seeks to gain the applause of others for an unholy usage, by which he may usurp a seat of preeminence for himself, is not worthy our consideration. All of us are fond of praise, and many are dishonest in the use and means to obtain it, therefore it is often difficult to distinguish between true and false friendship.

---Francis P. Kelcher, Daily Ardmoreite, Ardmore, Okla., Dec. 13, 1914.

The only fountain of youth in all this world is in one’s self and in the hearts of one’s old friends. New friends are well and good, but old ones are the best. An old friend may be as common as an old shoe. He may be down on his uppers and run down at the heel, but just because he is an old friend he brings back our youth. How many men there are who grow withered and shriveled and old before their time because they are not true to old friends. A man who stands by his own friends stands by himself. This is to put the matter on the same selfish basis; but at the same time all the beauty of life is shed abroad in the world by devotion to old friends. Old Polonius in “Hamlet,” with the wisdom of old age, advises his son that when he finds friends who adoption is tried, he should grapple them to him with hooks of steel. Robert Louis Stevenson considers it one of the obligations of life “to keep a few friends.” The daintiest essays of Cicero, of Montaigne, of Emerson are upon friendship. No man may escape the natural misfortunes and losses of this world, but if he has friends to whom he has been faithful through the years, those misfortunes will be tempered for him as the wind is tempered to the shorn lamb.

---Burris A. Jenkins, St. Joseph Gazette, St. Joseph, Mo., Jan. 28, 1934.

A lasting friendship can only be built upon integrity of character. Friendship is founded upon a feeling of unselfishness and the spirit of self-sacrifice. It is possible for friends to love each other better than they do themselves; to prefer one another in honor and prosperity. “It is the glory of life to love, not to be loved; to give, not to get; to serve, not to be served.”

---John N. Lyle, Washington Times, Washington, D.C., Aug. 22, 1903.

One of the most serious things in life is to offend a friend. There are so few who are kind and considerate of your feelings, that you should not offend them. Someone has been your admirer for years. If you offend him, it cuts deep, and he mourns in secret. Don’t do it. Be as good to people generally as you can, but above everything else, be considerate and appreciative of your friends.

---E.W. “Ed” Howe, Sioux County Herald, Orange City, Iowa, May 18, 1911.

Do you know what it means to be a friend, to have a friend, to be absolutely sure that whatever you do, whatever you are, wherever you are, there is one living soul who believes in you, who will trust you, help you, and never, never fail you? One who will always cheer and encourage in sunshine as well as in storm, for life is mostly sunny and the heart need a friend all the time—a constant source of inspiration, a heart forever alert and on the defensive for those it chooses to love.

---J. Marvin Nichols, Gainesville Daily Sun, Gainesville, Fla., June 16, 1907.