The quote database

Chide me when I do anything that is not well, but then make haste to tell me that you have forgiven me, and that you are what I shall ever be, a faithful friend.

Nothing is more characteristic of a man than the manner in which he behaves toward fools.

Methinks, if I loved him more, I should keep him--I should keep myself rather--at a more respectful distance.

Having treated my friend ill, I wished to apologize; but, not meeting him, I made an apology to myself.

In nine cases out of ten, a woman had better show more affection than she feels.

Your strength can compensate for my weakness, and your wisdom can help to minimize my mistakes.

Running in this Road I found many like myself; and we associated in that which is the reverse of true Friendship.

The real limit to be observed in friendship is this: the characters of two friends must be stainless.

a prince should entrust his friends with so much authority only as leaves a certain interval between his position and theirs

The prince, therefore, who would guard himself against plots, ought more to fear those men to whom he has been too indulgent, than those to whom he has done great wrongs.

Moreover men commonly deceive themselves in respect of the love which they imagine others bear them, nor can ever be sure of it until they have put it to the proof.

a friend should be like money tried before being required, not found faulty in our need

Whereas among real friends there is no rivalry or jealousy of one another, but they are satisfied and contented alike whether they are equal or one of them is superior.

Might not someone jeer at us in the same way, as being afraid, when we have not yet one firm friendship, that we shall without knowing it fall upon an abundance of friends?

Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.

The higher the style we demand of friendship, of course the less easy to establish it with flesh and blood.

Most men, when they repent, oblige their friends to share the bitterness of that repentance.

Friends are often chosen for similitude of manners, and therefore each palliates the other's failings, because they are his own.

Many friendships are formed by a community of sensual pleasures: all these will be cut off.

To disappoint a friend is unpleasing; and he that forms expectations like yours, must be disappointed.

Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.

Intimate friends are not fair witnesses to character, any more than professed enemies.

Friendships are frequently taken up on some sudden sympathy, and we see only as much as we please of one another's characters afterwards.