“Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence
“I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing
“The greatest sweetener of human life is friendship. To raise this to the highest pitch of enjoyment, is a secret which but few discover.
“Admiration is a very short-lived passion, that immediately decays upon growing familiar with its object
“Grief knits two hearts in closer bonds than happiness ever can; and common sufferings are far stronger links than common joys
“There are moments in life when all we can bear is the sense that our friend is near us; our wounds would wince at the touch of consoling words, that would reveal the depths of our pain.
“There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself - an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly
“I am speaking now of the highest duty we owe our friends, the noblest, the most sacred - that of keeping their own nobleness, goodness, pure and incorrupt
“To be among people one loves, that's sufficient; to dream, to speak to them, to be silent among them, to think of indifferent things; but among them, everything is equal