c2p-cmd/Good-Quotes-Authors huggingface dataset:
Because I have no actual sisters, it is my friends from Ames who’ve exposed me to every facet of womanhood.
— Jeffrey Zaslow, The Girls from Ames: A Story of Women and a Forty-Year Friendship
Why’d you call, boy? What did you want from me?""The company of a friend, I think.""Always a cheap treat.
— James Sallis, Drive
Leave this touching and clawing. Let him be to me a spirit. A message, a thought, a sincerity, a glance from him, I want, but not news nor pottage. I can get politics, and chat, and neighborly conveniences from cheaper companions. Should not the society of my friend be to me poetic, pure, universal, and great as nature itself? Ought I to feel that our tie is profane in comparison with yonder bar of cloud that sleeps on the horizon, or that clump of waving grass that divides the brook? Let us not vilify, bur raise it to that standard. That great, defying eye, that scornful beauty of his mien and action, do not pique yourself on reducing, but rather fortify and enhance.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
Anybody can look at you. It's quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see.
— John Green, Turtles All the Way Down
There are two categories of friendship: those in which people enliven one another and those in which people must be enlivened to be with one another. In the first category one clears the decks to be together
—  in the second one looks for an empty space in the schedule.
I have no trouble with my enemies - I can take care of my enemies all right. But my damn friends... They're the ones that keep me walking the floors at night!
— Warren G. Harding
They took Daisy to the orangery, where warm autumn light glittered through the windows, and the scents of citrus and bay hung thick in the air. Removing Daisy's heavy orange-blossom wreath and veil, Lillian set them aside on a chair.There was a silver tray on a nearby table, laden with a bottle of chilled champagne and four tall crystal glasses."This is a special toast for you, dear," Lillian said, while Annabelle poured the sparkling liquid and handed the glasses out. "To your happy ending. Since you've had to wait for it longer than the rest of us, I'd say you deserve the entire bottle." She grinned. "But we're going to share it with you anyway."Daisy curved her fingers around the crystal stem. "It should be a toast for all of us," she said. "After all, three years ago we had the worst marriage prospects imaginable. We couldn't even get an invitation to dance. And look how well things turned out.""All it t-took was some devious behavior and a few scandals here and there," Evie said with a smile."And friendship," Annabelle added."To friendship," Lillian said, her voice suddenly husky.And their four glasses clicked in one perfect moment.
— Lisa Kleypas, Scandal in Spring
By your behavior you send signals on how people should treat you
— Bangambiki Habyarimana, Book of Wisdom
Arvandus!" I tried again to reach him. "You can come back now. I'm alone and would love to argue with you again.
— J.M. Hackman, Spark
After this manner conceive that a flatterer differs from a friend: for it often happens to both that they engage in the same employments and the same associations; but the one differs from the other in use, in the end, and in the disposition of the soul: for the friend considers that which appears to him to be good to belong also in common to his friend; and, whether this proves to be painful or pleasant, he partakes equally of it with him; but the flatterer, following his own desires, conducts the association to his own advantage. The friend desires an equality of good, the flatterer his own private good. The one aspires after equal honour in virtue, the other after superiority in pleasure. The one in conversation desires an equal freedom of speech, the other servile submission. The one loves truth in association, the other deception; and the one looks to future emolument, but the other to present delight. The one requires to be reminded of his good actions, the other wishes them to be involved in oblivion. The one takes care of the possessions of his friend, as of things common, the other destroys them, as being the property of another. The company of a friend in prosperity is most opportune, and in calamity is most equal; but a flatterer can never be satiated with prosperity, and in adversity he is never to be seen. Friendship is laudable, flattery detestable; for friendship attends to equality of retribution, but this flattery mutilates: for he who pays servile attention to another through indigence, that his wants may be supplied, so far as he does not receive an equal submission in return, will reprobate the inequality. A friend, when his friendship is concealed, is unhappy; on the contrary, a flatterer is miserable when is flattery is not concealed. Friendship when tried is strengthened, flattery is confuted, by time. Friendship requires not to be corroborated by advantage, but flattery cannot subsist without profit; and if men have any communion with the divinities, the pious man is a friend to divinity, but the superstitious is a flatterer of divinity; and the pious man is blessed, but the superstitious is miserable.
— Maximus Tyrius, The Dissertations of Maximus Tyrius, Volume 1
It might even teach Murray that while finding true love was one of the most wonderful things that could happen to you in life, finding a friend was equally splendid.
— Félix J. Palma, The Map of the Sky
A friend: What book haven't you read yet?Me: I'm not sure. I have read the Percy Jackson series or Mortal Instrument series in a whil--Friend: I mean, like, a book you haven't read at all.Me: Oh. I'm not sure then, let me get back to you after I finish this six-book series.
— Me
Alice's dinner consisted of one-half cup medium-grain white rice (120 calories), four spears of asparagus (20 calories), and a pat of butter (40 calories). Bones watched as she used her index finger to smear the butter on an asparagus spear. Then she sucked her middle finger, pretending to remove the excess butter. The buttered finger scratched an ankle, and the calories disappeared into her leg warmer."Tricky," he said under his breath.She smiled. "Just good technique.
— Sherry Shahan, Skin and Bones
When people come to me upset and in need of advice the first thing I always suggest is to brew a nice cuppa tea. Not because this is easy advice to give, neither for lack of compassion nor understanding, but simply because I've not encountered a circumstance where tea was rendered futile. There's something concealed in the nature of tea that will consort you to a calm contemplation, a sense of purity and harmony, it lets you find your way through life's sordid deeds, and regain a sense of tranquillity, console enmity, and admire the beauty around you. I love my close friends and family so dearly that the first thing I wish upon them in a time of desperation is a nice cup of tea. So to my dearest friends, you're always invited; you, me and a cup of tea?
— Georgia Barrett
We must seek out that which invigorates us, and engage it at all fronts. Art, music, literature, conversation, travel, nature—whatever it is that keeps the fire of our spirit bright—we must build our life around it; for, without our passions, the years ahead become a burden rather than a gift.
— L.M. Browning, Seasons of Contemplation: A Book of Midnight Meditations
You have been my friend in the cosmos; you have been my only friend on this planet - the only soul to sense and seek for me within the repellent form which lies on this couch. We shall meet again - perhaps in the shining mists of Orion’s Sword, perhaps on a bleak plateau in prehistoric Asia. Perhaps in unremembered dreams tonight; perhaps in some other form an aeon hence, when the solar system shall have been swept away.
— H.P. Lovecraft
A friend: What book haven't you read yet?Me: I'm not sure. I have read the Percy Jackson series or Mortal Instrument series in a whil--Friend: I mean, like, a book you haven't read at all.Me: Oh. I'm not sure then, let me get back to you after I finish this six-book series."-- Me.
— #myself
A friendship that can be ended didn't ever start.
— Mellin de Saint-Gelais, Oeuvres Poetiques Francaises, Tome 1
Only when you are in trouble do you realize who your true friends are… And, my dear, you will be surprised!
— Charbel Tadros
A friend is like a mirror: he’s the one who reflects your light most accurately. However, a close friend not only reflects your self but enhances and embellishes it.
— Charbel Tadros
Unless we learn to criticize friends, we shall never find true ones.
— Tarif Naaz
My friendship with Leonard began with me invoking the laws of love: the ones that involved the expectancy. "We are one," I decided shortly after we met. "You are me, and I am you, and it is our obligation to save each other." It took me years for me to realize this sentiment was off the mark. What we are, in fact, is a pair of solitary travelers slogging through the country of our lives, meeting up from time to time at the outer limit to give each other border reports.
— Vivian Gornick, The Odd Woman and the City: A Memoir
Ad we interviewing each other?Something like that.What position am I applying for?Best friend.I thought I already had the job.Don't be so sure, you arrogant son of a bitch.
— Benjamin Alire Sáenz, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
I've decided that I'm not going to try to squeeze myself into a friendship that hurts me any more. I'm going to let her go and just be friends with people who make me feel good about my self.
— Zoe Sugg, Girl Online
It's never too early to give your best friend some moral support
— Zoe Sugg, Girl Online
If you want to talk about it with someone, then I`m happy to listen, or try and help, but you should only tell me if you want to.
— Jane Green, Bookends
To anyone who will take the trouble to become attached to her she will immediately give a devoted, generous, imaginative and completely uncapricious attention, which is still a calculated avoidance of self-surrender. This is no doubt another reason why she never went into films; her private life must be an almost full-time activity. This has the sad result too that her existence is one long act of disloyalty; and when I knew her she was constantly involved in secrecy and lying in order to conceal from each of her friends the fact that she was so closely bound to all the others.
— Iris Murdoch, Under the Net
An outdoor café and your French beret are quick ways to my soul, but a good jazz is like standing next to my heart. Don't sail away without your sail-mate, because I've charted our course to a sunset paradise. ~ Fidelis O Mkparu (2016), author of 'Love's Affliction
— Fidelis O Mkparu
That's the problem with lying. You can never remember what you've said.
— Jane Green, Bookends
Forever feels a long time when you're eighteen. When you're away from home for the first time in your life, when you forge instant friendships that are so strong they are destined, surely, to be with you until the bitter end.
— Jane Green, Bookends
I am not a people pleaser. I am not a person who says things because she thinks it will make the other person happy, nor am I a person who offers things she cannot deliver because I want the other person to like me.
— Jane Green, Bookends
You must work to live, not live to work.
— Jane Green, Bookends
There is no gift like friendship. Remember this - when you become a young man. For your fate will turn on the first true friend you make.
— Rudyard Kipling, Puck of Pook's Hill
Maybe, he thought, there aren’t any such things as good friends or bad friends—maybe there are just friends, people who stand by you when you’re hurt and who help you feel not so lonely. Maybe they’re always worth being scared for, and hoping for, and living for. Maybe worth dying for, too, if that’s what has to be.
— Stephen King, It 〈3〉
You broughtme your darkness& I loved youwith the radianttears of athousand suns.
— Curtis Tyrone Jones, Mirrors Of The Sun: Finding Reflections Of Light In The Shittiness Of Life
I should send my bees ashore for you, upon my sacred honour.
— Patrick O'Brian, Post Captain
Well, I will wear the bees, like Damon and Pythagoras – ho, a mere sixty thousand bees in the cabin don't signify, much.
— Patrick O'Brian, Post Captain
I would disapprove of another hospitable man who was excessive in friendship, as of one excessive in hate. In all things balance is better.
— Homer, The Odyssey
That's friendship, each playing the potter to see what shapes we can make of the other.
— Ray Bradbury
You know I'm not a man with whom you can have inconsequential conversations. I cannot split myself into two, one your friend and the other the king's servant.
— Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies
I was always alone, Doc, solitary whether I wished to be or not, ever since I could remember I wished to be lost in another, thought that somehow I could disappear into that heart of yours, take walks within your veins, wander through the bones of you. You had friends, Satan said, you loved and were loved, you must not forget that, at least not that. But did I allow anyone in, I asked Satan, and he said, Did you, does anyone?
— Rabih Alameddine, The Angel of History
Expose Yourself to True Friendship for It Heals, encourages and lifts you higher.
— Jaachynma N.E. Agu, Woman: You've Got All It Takes!
Friendship is like a walk in the wood
—  you may not know the terrain too well or even know where you are headed yet you enjoy it all the same!
When the value of a relation gets lower than the amount of thought and time needed to maintain or resurrect them, It withers away.
— EverSkeptic
Nothing disrupts dehumanization more quickly than inviting someone over, looking into their eyes, hearing their voice, and listening.
— Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair
-I'm your girlfriend?- "No." Alexei shakes his head, then pulls me to him again, holds me closer. "There's not a word in either of our language for what you are to me".
— Ally Carter, Take the Key and Lock Her Up
Magdalen's eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. She was so sweet and beautiful. She would make a wonderful margrave's wife. Avelina had already made up her mind that the margrave had not killed his brother. She simply could not believe anyone who was so particular about who he was going to marry, and who seemed so concerned about orphans, could have done such a despicable thing. At least, she hoped not.
— Melanie Dickerson, The Beautiful Pretender
Takizawa: something that was left in my care. give it back to Amon for me. see you, Goat's King.Kaneki: I'm not taking It.Takizawa: Its just a small chain and yet It feels so heavy to me... fine whatever.Kaneki: Takizawa, Its because you'r completely empty inside that if we don't tie you down with a chain you'll go off and die.
— Sui Ishida, 東京喰種トーキョーグール:re 11 [Tokyo Guru:re 11]
Have I not destroyed my enemy when I have made him into my friend?
— Abraham Lincoln
As to our going on together as we were going, in a sort of friendly way, the people round us would have made it unable to continue. Their views of the relations of man and woman are limited, as is proved by their expelling me from the school. Their philosophy only recognizes relations based on animal desire. The wide field of strong attachment where desire plays, at least, only a secondary part, is ignored by them—the part of—who is it?—Venus Urania.
— Thomas Hardy, Jude the Obscure
Be easy with yourself. Be gentle. Remember to be your own friend. We all make mistakes. We all say silly things now and then. It's also OK to change your mind. Don't replay the moments. Don't torture yourself with critique and negative self-talk. The expectation is not perfection, it's to keep moving forward. Keep trying. Keep learning and growing. You'll get a lot further with a positive attitude. Love will open and grow you. Love will encourage you. No one can love you more than you can love yourself. Be your own ally. Learn to help not hinder yourself.
— Akiroq Brost
There is no friendship, without forgiveness.
— Lailah Gifty Akita
I write, like anybody else, about how it is to be human." -- Mark Merlis
— Arlie Corday, Cinderella Shoots the Moon
Fake friends are better than true friends because it doesn't hurt when they leave.
— Jyothsna Ravi
As you play this record, I hope you'll think of the good, not the bad. Of what was, not what wasn't meant to be. Of the time we spent together, not the time we've spent apart. Most of all I hop you'll think of me...
— Jamie Ford, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet
While watching the revelry in the Barn, I'd had an epiphany. Parties weren't just about who was who and being seen. It was about letting go. About celebrating that we all made it through one more boring week. Everyone came together in one place, and for a while, it was as if nothing mattered except the music and the energy and being away from all of the adults in our lives. These parties were about freedom. And friendship. They were about friendship too.
— Chelsea Sedoti, The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett
... As for me, I taught the lad the real character of a rifle; and well has he paid me for it. I have fought at his side in many a bloody scrimmage; and so long as I could hear the crack of his piece in one ear, and that of the Sagamore in the other, I knew no enemy was on my back. Winters and summers, nights and days, have we roved the wilderness in company, eating of the same dish, one sleeping while the other watched; and afore it shall be said that Uncas was taken to the torment, and I at hand - There is but a single ruler of us all, whatever maybe the color of the skin, and him I call to witness - that before the Mohican boy shall perish for the want of a friend, good faith shall depart the 'arth and 'Kill-deer' become as harmless as the tooting we'pon of the singer!
— James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans
You say 'love' too easily, Kepler.""No, not rally - please don't call me that. The idea that love has to be a blazing romantic thing of monogamous stability is innately ludicrous. You loved your parents, perhaps, because they were the warmth you could flee to. You loved your first childhood crush with a passion that made your lips tingle, your flesh grow light in their presence. You loved your wife with the steadiness of an ocean against the shore; your lover with the blaze of a shooting star, your best friend with the confidence of a mountain. Love is a many-splendorous thing, as the old song says....
— Claire North, Touch
Money and power attract friends. But it’s not you they’re friends with — just your money and power. Only affection brings genuine friends.
— Auliq-Ice
It has to do with me because it has to do with you," Young says, his voice dropping. "Jaewon-ah, we've been friends longer than we've been--.""Enemies?" I suggest weakly."Than we've been lost.
— Axie Oh, Rebel Seoul
So strange that David Drucker of all people was the only one who said the exact right thing: Your dad shouldn't have died. That's really unfair.
— Julie Buxbaum, What to Say Next
Friendship is based on trust and treating others kindly.
— Auliq-Ice
You may control people physically by force, but you won’t change their hearts and minds—that requires trust and friendship.
— Auliq-Ice
It is not enough simply to wish that love and compassion grow within us. We need a sustained effort to cultivate such positive qualities.
— Auliq-Ice
Caring for others is the best way to fulfil our own interests.
— Auliq-Ice
The best friends are made in childhood when we have no ulterior motives.
— Tapan Ghosh, Faceless The Only Way Out
Because that is how one survives eternity,” I say, “or even a few years. Friends. Family. Moving with them. Moving forward.
— N.K. Jemisin, The Stone Sky
Pilar, if anyone, should have understood how awful it was to be surrounded by people who had their own version of the truth. People who wouldn’t listen to you long enough to know you at a
— Charlotte Leonetti
We would never go shopping together or eat an entire cake while we complained about men. He'd never invite me over to his house for dinner or a barbecue. We'd never be lovers. But there was a very good chance that one of us would be the last person the other saw before we died. It wasn't friendship the way most people understood it, but it was friendship. There were several people I'd trust with my life, but there is no one else I'd trust with my death. Jean-Claude and even Richard would try to hold me alive out of love or something that passed for it. Even my family and other friends would fight to keep me alive. If I wanted death, Edward would give it to me. Because we both understand that it isn't death that we fear. It's living.
— Laurell K. Hamilton, Obsidian Butterfly
Real friends are like autotroph, whether you pay your intentions or not but they keep calm your noons.
— Samar Sudha
Was this really friendship? I have my doubts.
— Wataru Watari, やはり俺の青春ラブコメはまちがっている 2
Maybe talking like they do -- like every trivial conversation is the height of their youth -- is what being friends is. There's no way I would do that
—  I'd burst into laughter halfway.
It is good to bounce things off a trusted friend.
— Sofi Benitez, Dog Daze
I'll be fine." She kissed his cheek. "Styles nearly killed the two men I love most. Trust me, he's going to regret that. After all, it is foolish to get on the bad side of either Spellsmith or Carver...and I just happen to be both.
— H.L. Burke, Magicians' Trial
We laughed over our difference then spent years bonding over things that made us the same.
— Nikesh Shukla, A Change Is Gonna Come
Cyber trolls' deceptive manipulative, political power play, duplicity and devious hypocrisy cannot equate to true friendship.~ Angelica Hopes, K.H. Trilogy
— Angelica Hopes
Genuine friends will NOT be intimidated by your success. They will be happy for you and celebrate you! Don’t fool yourself
—  jealousy and friendship do NOT mix.
As I looked out at the water, I realized there was nowhere to go, nowhere left to run. And I just had to stay here facing this terrible truth. I felt, as more tears fell, just how tired I was, a tiredness that had nothing to do with the hour. I was tired of running from this, tired of pretending that things were okay when they had never, ever been less okay.
— Morgan Matson, Second Chance Summer
A person who loves you through your idiosyncrasies, despite the tiny inclusions, is a diamond worth keeping.
— Terry a O'Neal
My path gets more beautiful when you walk it with me.
— Toni Sorenson
A good friend would offer you an umbrella in the rain. A best friend would steal yours and say, 'run, b*tch, run!
— Unknown Author
I hate the phrase 'more than friends'," Joni told me one night not long ago. "It's such nonsense. When I'm going out with someone, we're not 'more than friends' - most of the time, we're not even friends. 'More than friends' makes no sense. Look at us. There's nothing more than us.
— David Levithan, Boy Meets Boy
You can love more than one person, she said. That's arguable. Why is it any different from having more than one friend? You're friends with me and you also have other friends, does that mean you don't really value me? I don't have other friends, I said.
— Sally Rooney, Conversations with Friends
You get out of hell one step at a time." -- Abbie Sullivan, "Cinderella Shoots the Moon.
— Arlie Corday, Cinderella Shoots the Moon
Your laughter : the drugThat cures my emotional infection
— Richard L.  Ratliff
Trust me, Bea, you are on your way. It’s about acknowledging where you are and knowing that you are okay. The universe has your back and so do I.
— Sadeqa Johnson, And Then There Was Me
You create more space in your life when you turn your excess baggage to garbage.
— Chinonye J. Chidolue
After being around such crazy people, how could I not change too?
— Bisco Hatori, Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 17
We were a coven
—  we were a crowd. We were a forest
Animals in our lives can be a blessing.
— J. Wesley Porter, A Spiritual Dog: "Bear"
You showed me that even the smallest of people can have the loudest of words.” (Rachael Taylor, 2018).
— Michael  Rogers, Tales Of
The principle that first you try to solve your problems on your own and only turn to others as a last resort applies to friends. We have an obligation to show our friends that we are turning to them for a favor not because it happens to be convenient for us to do so but because of a compelling reason.
— P.M. Forni, Choosing Civility: The Twenty-five Rules of Considerate Conduct
The only way to free yourself from all the anxiety you’re feeling about the difficult conversation you know you need to have is by having the difficult conversation. It’s time. It’s been time. You’ll survive it. Just be brave and start talking.
— Scott Stabile
Becoming fast friends when you're that small is easy, because the only requirement is that the other person likes to play games.
— Jackson Pearce, Cold Spell
I make it a point not to talk about the past. But you're special.
— Yuhta Nishio, After Hours, Vol. 1
But, is it more important to stay true to yourself, to what you believe in, or give it up for someone you care about?”Lisa gives me a warm smile and her hand finds mine on the table.“There is no right answer to that.” She squeezes my hand hard. “It depends on so many things. You are the one who has to choose, to find the balance between what you believe in and what you care about. It’s a game with high risk—you can lose someone you care about but still have your pride, or…you can lose yourself for someone you care about.” She gets up from her seat. “The real question is—is ‘care’ good enough to be lost for?
— Anna B. Doe, Lost & Found
Boy, did she love those idiots.
— Emory R. Frie, Neverland
What exactly does a friend do?
— Kiersten White, And I Darken
Using someone else's kitchen feels a little like reading their diary. I'm so anxious.
— Yuhta Nishio, After Hours, Vol. 1
We’re your friends. Our job is to tease you mercilessly about your foibles, rag you about your upright, honorable nature, and point out to you when you’re being a complete dolt.
— Laura Lee Guhrke, No Mistress Of Mine
We didn’t have to talk then, and that is real friendship. Never uncomfortable with silence, which, in its welcome form, is yet an extension of conversation.
— Patti Smith
Don't worry, I won't abandon you. I promise.
— Yuhta Nishio, After Hours, Vol. 1
It made me realize that Beatrice had changed
—  that she did not pull her wagon so much as she got taken for rides.
Somewhere between buying 25 friendship bands and passing by the shop with a smile looking at kids buying the bands, we grew up
— Anamika Mishra
I loved you as a boy and fell in love with you as a man. You’re in here so deep that there is no you, no me. Only us.
— Kelly Moran, Benediction
A friend need not be kept either within sight or within reach. A friend must be allowed the freedom to find and follow his own path. If one is fortunate, those paths will for a time join. But if the paths separate, it is comforting to know that a friend still graces the universe with his skills, and his viewpoint, and his presence. For if one is remembered by a friend, one is never truly gone.
— Timothy Zahn, Star Wars - Thrawn
Far too long hath there been a slave and a tyrant concealed in a woman. On that account woman is not yet capable of friendship: she knoweth only love. In a woman's love there is injustice and blindness to all she doth not love. And even in woman's conscious love, there is always surprise and lightening and night , along with the light.
— Friedrich Neitzsche
(...) Clay knew better. He and Gabriel had been friends for thirty-five years, and Gabe had been talking him into doing recklessly stupid shit for damn near all of them. He was a charismatic craftsman: every heart a furnace, every soul a blade.
— Nicholas Eames, Kings of the Wyld
You can love something without loving everything about it. You don't have to feel embarrassed about not being proud. That applies to hockey, but it also applies to friends.
— Fredrik Backman, Beartown
A light has dawned for me: I need companions, living ones, not dead companions and corpses which I carry with me wherever I wish. But I need living companions who follow me because they want to follow themselves— and who want to go where I want to go.
— Friedrich Nietzsche, Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Love those who value you and call you out on your BS.
— Jennifer Coletta
You never know. Somebody can seem cool and then you look in their music library and there's Katy Perry.
— Kara Lee Corthron, The Truth of Right Now
Melly is the only woman friend I ever had,” she thought forlornly, “the only woman except Mother who really loved me. She’s like Mother, too. Everyone who knew her has clung to her skirts.
— Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
Believe that when I am at once a man's friend I am always so-nor is it so very hard to bring me to it. And though a man may enjoy himself in being my enemy, he cannot make me HIS for longer than I wish. Good afternoon." Lowell had a way of leaving a conversation with the other person needing more from him.
— Matthew Pearl, The Dante Club
How closely flattery resembles friendship! It not only apes friendship, but outdoes it, passing it in the race; with wide-open and indulgent ears it is welcomed and sinks to the depths of the heart, and it is pleasing precisely wherein it does harm.
— Seneca
A real friend sees past the trouble and into your heart
— Deborah Wiles, Each Little Bird that Sings
But of course, the Count also wept for himself. For despite his friendships with Marina and Andrey and Emile, despite his love for Anna, despite Sofia - that extraordinary blessing that had struck him from the blue - when Mikhail Fyodorovich Mindich died, there went the last of those who had known him as a younger man.
— Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
You're going to meet people in this world who are fine, quality people. They'll build your character, and you want to hang around with them. Then there are the ones who don't do right. They will tear you down. Be nice to them-never hurt anybody-but don't hang with them.
— Ruthi Postow Birch, How to Build a Piano Bench
Sophie bristled. “About to die with your beloved prince and still thinking about me. My story will go on without you, Agatha. I don’t need you anymore or your pity, like one of your decrepit cats. I’m no longer your Good Deed.”“But I’m still yours,” said Agatha. “Because without your love, I’d never have become who I really am. So even if I die, I’ll always be your Good Deed, Sophie. And no Evil in the world will ever erase that.
— Soman Chainani, The Last Ever After
All close friendships are marked with competition. Our earliest tests are against our siblings and playmates, and some of that rivalry endures amongst friends into adulthood. Like dogs play fighting, you learn not to bite hard.
— Christopher Bollen
Tell me you'll never lie to me again, and I'll go with you.
— Pat Shand, Destiny, NY, Volume One: Who I Used to Be
Friends can create our most cherished memories.
— Fennel Hudson, Traditional Angling - Fennel's Journal - No. 6
If only I could spend all days surrounded by people brave enough to open their hearts for real.
— Scott Stabile
You show true friends the ugly--and trust them enough to turn it into something beautiful.
— Rachel Van Dyken, The Playboy Bachelor
We pick our friends not only because they are kind and enjoyable company, but also, perhaps more importantly, because they understand us for who we think we are.
— Alain de Botton, The Consolations of Philosophy
Look, this isn't about the ring or when I ever made a hamburger, which, for your information, was my senior year of college.""Right, when you almost caught our kitchen on fire.""And you dated one of the firefighters for six months. You're welcome. Back to my problem.
— Rachel Hauck, The Writing Desk
You miss a lot of a person’s life when you don’t keep in touch. Maybe that’s the point.
— Bryant A. Loney, Take Me to the Cat
If they're friends, then they've got your back . . . whether you're there or not. Friends won't "forget" about you.
— Svetlana Chmakova, Brave
It doesn't count if it's from friends, right?
— Svetlana Chmakova, Brave
Oh no. Maybe I'd gotten too cocky. I was still relatively new to this friend business. Had I screwed up even asking? Should I have waited for her to offer up details?
— Gwenda Bond, Triple Threat
Please, I'm your friend -- inside that tough-girl shell is a really tough girl. But you're motivated by how much you care. Being part of Team Lois, it's an honor. There's nothing you wouldn't do for any of us.
— Gwenda Bond, Triple Threat
It figured my family would get along better with Clark than they did me.
— Gwenda Bond, Triple Threat
Thus the Government of our Virtue was broken and I exchang'd the Place of Friend for that unmusical harsh-sounding Title of Whore.
— Daniel Defoe, Moll Flanders
The Moon is always there. A half blink of shadow, a crescent of an eyelash, opulent in fullness, spellbound in nothingness, and a friend.
— Carolyn Riker, Blue Clouds: A Collection of Soul’s Creative Intelligence
…reality is the make-believe of the majority that can only thrive in conformity.
— Janvier Chouteu-Chando, The Girl on the Trail
Maybe friendship was loving someone even when you didn't always understand them.
— Sarah Morgan, Sunset in Central Park
Seeing the Pure Soul (Shuddhatma) in everyone is itself an intent of friendship towards the entire world.
— Dada Bhagwan
I hated reunions. It made myself felt so little afterwards. When I was there, I couldn’t help not knowing. But after I knew things, I couldn’t stop comparing. I was congratulating people when they told me the good news, but deep inside I was wondering whether their good news was better than mine. Life wasn’t supposed to be a competition, but it really felt like one.
— Marcella Purnama, What I Wish I Had Known
When one turns seventeen and begins to experience that first period of real independence, one's senses are so alert, one's sentiments so finely attuned that every conversation, every look, every laugh may be writ indelibly upon one's memory. And the friends that one happens to make in those impressionable years? One will meet them forever after with a welling of affection.
— Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow
But for a Christian, there are, strictly speaking, no chances. A secret Master of Ceremonies has been at work. Christ, who said to the disciples, 'Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you,' can truly say to every group of Christian friends, 'You have not chosen one another, but I have chosen you for one another.' The friendship is not a reward for our discrimination and good taste in finding one another out. It is the instrument by which God reveals to each the beauties of all the others...At this feast it is He who has spread the board and it is He who has chosen the guests. it is He, we may dare to hope, who sometimes does, and always should preside. Let us not reckon without our Host.
— C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves
He and I have a head-nod friendship, since that's pretty much the limit of our interaction.
— Lauren Oliver, Before I Fall
Clarifications create either great communities or great conflicts.
— Efrat Cybulkiewicz
Friendship built on top of Lies and betrayal is always shaky and it never last..
— Brighton Mabuya
Do not expect trust to appear suddenly and in a state of completion. Trust grows gradually as we venture forth little by little, with God and each other. As our trust grows, so will our willingness and courage to speak and listen with greater freedom. Seeing things more clearly is often one of the fruits of our growing trust.
— Jeannette A. Bakke, Holy Invitations: Exploring Spiritual Direction
The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists in listening to them. Just as love to God begins with listening to His Word, so the beginning of love for the brethren is learning to listen to them. It is God's love for us that He not only gives us His Word but also lends us His ear. So it is His work that we do for our brother and sister when we learn to listen to them.
— Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community
I had first thought of Milly's absurdities, to which, in description, I cannot do justice, simply because so many details have, by distance of time, escaped my recollection. But her ways and her talk were so indescribably grotesque that she made me again and again quiver with suppressed laughter. But there was a pitiable and even a melancholy meaning underlying the burlesque. This creature, with no more education than a dairy-maid, I gradually discovered had fine natural aptitudes for accomplishment - a very sweet voice, and wonderfully delicate ear, and a talent for drawing which quite threw mine into the shade. It was really astonishing.
— J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Uncle Silas
We were more alike than any of the others, neither of us quite human and both hated by the two species we drifted between.
— Kevin Reaver, Outcast
I meditated on my childhood, vague and distant before high school, where Laura still flickered only on the edge of things.
— Hannah Lillith Assadi, Sonora
Our past would dissolve. We would move on from each other and from the ghosts of our youth.
— Hannah Lillith Assadi, Sonora
In that sense, this is not a standard book of interviews. Nor is it what you might call a book of 'celebrity conversations.' What I was searching for - with increasing clarity as the sessions progressed - was something akin to the heart's natural resonance. What I did my best to hear, of course, was that resonance coming from Ozawa's heart. After all, in our conversations I was the interviewer and he was the interviewee. But what I often heard at the same time was the resonance of my own heart. At times that resonance was something I recognized as having long been a part of me, and at other times it came as a complete surprise. In other words, through a kind of sympathetic vibration that occurred during all of these conversations, I may have been simultaneously discovering Seiji Ozawa and, bit by bit, Haruki Murakami.
— Haruki Murakami, Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa
If I exist, then surely there must be someone else out there like me.
— Joyce Rachelle
Yes!" Torin threw an arm over Reese's shoulder. "Smell that in the air? A grand adventure awaits.
— Desiree Williams, Illusionary
Always make an effort to be around people who will help you grow.
— Joyce Rachelle
Friendship is about more than facts. It's about knowing what someone is thinking, or knowing enough to know that you don't. But I guess it's also about not letting too much time go by without asking them questions, so you don't end up looking at them one afternoon, the sun so bright you have to squint, realizing that you hardly recognize the person they've become.
— Nina LaCour, You Know Me Well
I have met many different people in the course of my life, some of whom I have come to know pretty well, but where these three traits are concerned, I had never encountered anyone before Seiji Ozawa with whom I found it so easy and natural to identify. In that sense, he is a precious person to me. It sets my mind at ease to know that there is someone like him in the world.
— Haruki Murakami, Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa
Love can be simply the absence of tension.
— Will Advise
Never use naughtiness in mixed company, unless your witticism is so funny that your audience will shoot tears of happiness out of their eyes with a velocity sufficient to powerwash a small bus. Any joke that falls short of that standard will make you lose respect in the eyes of everyone except your best friends, who, as you know, lost respect for you long ago.
— Scott Adams, The Joy of Work: Dilbert's Guide to Finding Happiness at the Expense of Your Co-Workers
Finding someone who thinks you’re interesting enough to talk to you every day, whether they’re a friend or a lover, is one of the best feelings ever.
— Unknown
Friendship true is a vow of care.A warm embrace when in despair.A loving presence waiting thereto lift a heart, its burdens bear.Friendship true is an earnest prayer.A tongue of praise for one’s welfare.A smile ’mid laughs as light as air,and thoughtfulness most kind and rare.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons
What is so rewarding about friendship?” my son asked, curling his upper lip into a sour expression. “Making friends takes too much time and effort, and for what?” I sat on the edge of his bed, understanding how it might seem simpler to go at life solo. “Friendship has unique rewards,” I told him. “They can be unpredictable. For instance....” I couldn’t help but pause to smile crookedly at an old memory that was dear to my heart. Then I shared with my son an unforgettable incident from my younger years. “True story. When I was about your age, I decided to try out for a school play. Tryouts were to begin after the last class of the day, but first I had to run home to grab a couple props for the monologue I planned to perform during tryouts. Silly me, I had left them at the house that morning. Luckily, I only lived across a long expanse of grassy field that separated the school from the nearest neighborhood. Unluckily, it was raining and I didn’t have an umbrella.  “Determined to get what I needed, I raced home, grabbed my props, and tore back across the field while my friend waited under the dry protection of the school’s wooden eaves. She watched me run in the rain, gesturing for me to go faster while calling out to hurry up or we would be late.  “The rain was pouring by that time which was added reason for me to move fast. I didn’t want to look like a wet rat on stage in front of dozens of fellow students. Don’t ask me why I didn’t grab an umbrella from home—teenage pride or lack of focus, I’m not sure—but the increasing rain combined with the hollering from my friend as well as my anxious nerves about trying out for the play had me running far too fast in shoes that lacked any tread.  “About a yard from the sidewalk where the grass was worn from foot traffic and consequently muddied from the downpour of rain, I slipped and fell on my hind end. Me, my props, and my dignity slid through the mud and lay there, coated. My things were dripping with mud. I was covered in it. I felt my heart plunge, and I wanted to cry. I probably would have if it hadn’t been for the wonderful thing that happened right then. My crazy friend ran over and plopped herself down in the mud beside me. She wiggled in it, making herself as much a mess as I was. Then she took my slimy hand in hers and pulled us both to our feet. We tried out for the play looking like a couple of swine escaped from a pigsty, laughing the whole time. I never did cry, thanks to my friend. “So yes, my dear son, friendship has its unique rewards—priceless ones.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons
For me, there are distinct levels of friendship:BEST FRIEND: An extremely close individual you can do anything with, talk about everything with, confide in, and be comfortable with sitting in silence on car journeys; those people you consider to be part of your familyGOOD FRIEND: A person you are comfortable hanging out with one-on-one for an extended period of time and see semiregularly; someone who shares experiences with you but not your deepest troubles and secretsFRIEND: Someone you hang out with in a group setting occasionallyAcquaintance: Someone you know on a first-name basis and say "hi" to but that's pretty much the extent of itSTRANGERS: The rest of the world (and all your potential best friends in the future)
— Connor Franta, A Work in Progress
Some gifts are baits! Watch out!
— Ernest Agyemang Yeboah
If You Respect Their Preparation,You never Drop the Baton
— Vineet Raj Kapoor
Know this too: Some people won't like you, and you won't like everyone. That's okay. None of that matters. What matters is meeting like-minded people who get you, accept you, and will do anything for you. Even if that means pegging some poor kid in the face with a snowball and sitting against a playground wall on a cold, snowy day.
— Connor Franta, A Work in Progress
True friendship is counted in memories, experiences, and troubles shared; it's a bond built up over time in person, not a virtual tally on the Internet. It finds you; you don't find it.
— Connor Franta, A Work in Progress
Friendship, a covalent bond, powerful and without any expectations.
— Saravana Kumar Murugan, Coffee Date
Seeing someone reading a book you love is seeing a book recommending a person.
— Unknown
Apparently there were seven stages of grief but that was a neat way of putting it. Grief was messy and didn't colour inside the lines
— Emily Gale, The Other Side of Summer
Rima: "Hey Shiki, won't you be my husband?"Shiki: "sure."Rima: "How rash..."Shiki: "Ehh? Why...? It means that you will be my friend and companion forever. What is there to ponder?
— Matsuri Hino, Vampire Knight: Memories 1
It is not aloofness, superiority. It’s a protection. Who in this ravaged battlefield doesn’t want to gather close her comrades?
— Megan Abbott, Dare Me
The solitude of women's minds is regrettable, I said to myself, it's a waste to be separated from each other without procedures, without tradition.
— Elena Ferrante, Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay
Our history suggests that women will continue to show the world how to be friends.
— Marilyn Yalom, The Social Sex: A History of Female Friendship
No, the point of this story is that there are only a select few friends, past or present, that I would go to such lengths to stand by. That's what school really taught me: the enduring nature of friendship. How special it is to grow up and share a history with someone. As I've gotten older, friendships rooted in childhood feel even richer and more irreplaceable.
— Connor Franta, A Work in Progress
We were all grinning and everyone had their eyes open for once. Ian must have been moving - his hand was blurred. It was exactly how I imagined us, right down to Kieran's arm around me and the peace sign he was making above Matty's head. The big carving was behind us, and the other trees leaned into the picture, like giant people.Then a cloud went over the sun and Ian said he had better get going. I wished we had taken five pictures so that we could all have a copy. When I looked at the image again, the colours had already started to fade, as if it was a moment we could never have back.
— Inga Simpson, Where the Trees Were
Ranking where people stand in your life and who they are to you helps you determine who you value the most and therefore where best to spend your time.
— Connor Franta, A Work in Progress
It allows you to be yourself, good and bad. And it's a two-way street: you give and take equally.
— Connor Franta, A Work in Progress
What are you going to do for school?""Go to FSU with Tash.""What if there was no Tash? What would you do then?""I don't know," she murmurs. "Maybe go wherever Gabe goes. Or come to New York with you."It fills me with warmth, running liquid through me, but it won't thaw my mind. "Why does it have to be, like, based off someone else? Why can't you just do what you want?""What I want is to be around people I care about.""Oh." I blink at the ceiling once, twice, eyelids getting heavy, eyes getting fuzzy. It makes sense when she says it like that.
— Emma Mills, This Adventure Ends
You read my words and instantly we are both connected
— Richard L.  Ratliff
The closer two people stand to each other inwardly, the more readily they become for each other the condition under which alone their two beings find expression.
— Lou Andreas-Salomé
You can't control who your family is. I know about that. You can only pick good friends and maybe that's a better family.
— Ava Richardson, Dragons of Wild
Then August knew. Thomas didn’t dwell on things. Thomas was strong, and he didn’t know what it was to be afraid. He knew he could get what he wanted, never questioning his identity or who he would be the next day.He was everything August wasn’t, and that’s why August hated him.
— Kris Noel, Prime
Watching other people making friends, everywhere, as a dog makes friends. I mark the manner of these canine courtesies and think, here comes, thank Heaven, another enemy!
— Edmond Rostand, Cyrano de Bergerac
Laugh, and the world longs to be your friend.
— Richelle E. Goodrich, Slaying Dragons
This is us at forty-three per cent animosity.
— Will Kostakis, The Sidekicks
As individuals they were each of them fallible, discordant as notes without harmony. But as a band they were something more, something perfect in its own intangible way
— Nicholas Eames, Kings of the Wyld