Friendship quotes

The Railway Children, Project Gutenberg #1874. Bobbie says this to her mother after discussing relationships with people they have met; Mother answers “Perhaps you’re right,” preserving the line as hopeful fictional dialogue rather than an unconditional social rule.

The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Part I discussion of sympathy with joy and affliction; represented by the 1777 Dublin edition in Project Gutenberg #67363.

Emma, Volume II, Chapter XIII, scan-backed 1816 John Murray first edition on Wikisource. This corrects the inherited Volume III note: Emma says to herself that there is no charm equal to tenderness of heart after Harriet’s gratitude and affection move her to reassess Harriet’s character.

Christabel, Part II, reviewed against the scan-backed 1816 first-edition transcription on Wikisource. The narrator's 'friends in youth / whispering tongues' stanza explains the broken friendship of Sir Leoline and Lord Roland; the passage is Romantic narrative poetry about estrangement, not empirical relationship research.

Proverbs 17:9 in the King James Version.

The Golden Age, Project Gutenberg #53250. The passage is spoken by the narrator’s adult friend during a conversation about love; it is literary dialogue inside Grahame’s childhood-remembrance fiction rather than a sociological claim.

Dhammapada 204, Max Müller translation; the final reference to Nirvana makes the verse explicitly Buddhist rather than a purely secular maxim.

The Conduct of Life; Emerson presents another person’s demanding encouragement as a form of service that calls forth unrealized ability.

Character Building, “The Importance of Being Reliable,” Project Gutenberg #60484. The race language belongs to Washington’s historical response to discriminatory judgments and employment conditions.

Persuasion, Chapter XXIII, Project Gutenberg #105. Captain Frederick Wentworth writes the line to Anne Elliot while listening to her conversation with Captain Harville; the letter is signed “F. W.” and is fictional character writing, not Austen autobiography.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 40, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).

John 15:11 in the King James Version.

Ephesians 4:32 in the King James Version; excerpt from the verse before its comparison with divine forgiveness.

Anne of Avonlea, Project Gutenberg #47. Anne speaks to Diana during their conversation about Diana’s engagement; the line is fictional dialogue connecting imagination with sympathetic understanding.

1 Corinthians 13:8 in the King James Version; “charity” is the KJV rendering in this passage.

Laelius on Friendship, translated by Evelyn S. Shuckburgh in Project Gutenberg’s Treatises on Friendship and Old Age.

The Prophet, “On Marriage.”

Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841), verified against Project Gutenberg #2944 and the 1907 Merrill/Turpin page witness in Project Gutenberg #16643, printed page 126. Emerson names Truth as one of friendship’s two sovereign elements and says “A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere.” This collection preserves the essay’s idealizing moral argument rather than treating unrestricted disclosure as universally safe or appropriate.

Letter 109 considers whether one wise person can benefit another and answers that good people are mutually useful.

De Amicitia (Laelius de Amicitia), chapter 6 / classical section 20, Andrew P. Peabody translation, Project Gutenberg #7491. Laelius defines friendship as entire fellow feeling in human and divine things joined with mutual goodwill and affection. Cicero remains the work author while Gaius Laelius is the local dialogue speaker; this is ancient ethical-philosophical argument rather than a modern empirical definition of friendship.

Plato, Lysis, around 211e–212a (opening inquiry into friendship), Socrates addressing Menexenus; Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1579, dramatic text after Menexenus rejoins the discussion. Gold of Darius is a historical royal-wealth comparison and Socrates goes on to question what it means to be a friend. Do not attribute this speech to Plato as personal autobiography.

Essay “Friendship.”

Eight Cousins; Or, The Aunt-Hill, Chapter 17, Project Gutenberg #38567. Narrator commentary about Rose and Mac turning naturally to Dr Alec.

The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 35, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).

2 Corinthians 2:10, King James Version; Paul continues instructions about forgiving and receiving a person who had caused sorrow.

Phaedrus, approximately Stephanus 256d–e, Socrates’s second speech contrasting the self-controlled philosophical lovers with another pair moved more by ambition and desire. Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1636. The sentence belongs to the second pair, NOT the ideal self-controlled pair, which matters to its meaning; these are a philosophical narrator’s words, not a romantic pledge made by Plato.

Mark 11:25 in the King James Version; excerpt from the verse.

Essays: First Series, “Friendship” (1841), verified against Project Gutenberg #2944 and the page-numbered 1907 Merrill/Turpin Essays witness in Project Gutenberg #16643, printed page 117. Emerson says “Our intellectual and active powers increase with our affection” before illustrating the claim with a scholar who finds thoughts and language when writing to a friend; it remains literary-philosophical observation rather than a quantified psychological law.

Les Misérables, Project Gutenberg #135, in the represented Isabel F. Hapgood public-domain English translation. The sentence occurs in the narrator’s reflection on love and blindness; its English phrasing is translation-specific and belongs to the novel’s moral-religious rhetoric.

Nicomachean Ethics, Book VIII; Aristotle begins his discussion of friendship by treating it as necessary to a good life.

Moral Letters to Lucilius, Letter 3, Richard M. Gummere translation. Seneca immediately contrasts this with people who fear deception so strongly that their suspicions help teach others to deceive them.

Philippians 2:3 in the King James Version.

Plato, Symposium, Eryximachus speaking at approximately 188d–e near the end of his encomium of Eros; Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1600. The following exchange passes the speech to Aristophanes; speaker is physician Eryximachus, NOT Socrates. References to divine friendship and cosmology express ancient philosophical and religious views, not contemporary scientific findings.

Lysis, around Stephanus 221e, Socrates addressing Lysis and Menexenus while exploring desire, affinity and friendship. Benjamin Jowett English, Project Gutenberg #1579. The dialogue goes on to challenge whether the congenial is simply the like and ends without reaching a settled definition; do not present the tentative argument as an unconditional fact.

Silas Marner; the narration emphasizes that Eppie’s attachment joins Silas not only to her but also to the social world from which he had retreated.

Proverbs 27:9 in the King James Version.

“To Lucasta, Going Beyond the Seas,” published in Lucasta (1649) and represented by Project Gutenberg #703. The poem uses seventeenth-century spiritual and cosmological imagery to describe separation and fidelity; the claim is lyric metaphor.

Olive: A Novel, Chapter XI, Project Gutenberg #22121. Olive Rothesay tells Sara that if she loves Charles she should tell him so and give him her ‘whole life-long faith and affection’ while responding to Sara's first love-letter. This is fictional character counsel inside a nineteenth-century courtship plot rather than Craik autobiography or universally applicable relationship advice.

Laelius on Friendship; Laelius frames friendship as useful and natural in both good and difficult times.

1 John 1:4 in the King James Version.