Because most people wish to be liked more than to like, most people like flatterers, who are friends in an inferior position. Being liked by someone is akin to being honored by him. People like to be honored by good men in order to assure their own good opinion of themselves. However, people enjoy being liked not for the sake of something else but for its own sake. Friendship also seems to be chosen for its own sake, but it seems to depend more on liking than on being liked, as in the case of a mother's love for a child in spite of the child's response.
Friendship depends more on loving than on being loved.
Thus loving is the virtue of a friend. It is those who have this disposition to love according to merit who are enduring friends. This disposition is also that which allows unequals to be friends, for through this disposition they can be equalized. Good men neither err nor allow their friends to err. Wicked men tend to have short friendships based on enjoying each other's evil habits.