What does this quote mean?

“Nay, rather they are men.”

The short correction rejects reducing people to social roles and insists on recognizing the person before the status assigned to them.

Source note: Letter 47 repeatedly answers social labels by emphasizing the common humanity of enslaved people.

“Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none.”

The advice combines generosity with judgment: goodwill can be broad while trust remains selective.

Source note: All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, Scene 1; the Countess gives Bertram compact advice about conduct before he leaves.

“Confidence is the only bond of friendship.”

Trust is presented as the connective tissue of friendship: without confidence in one another, familiarity alone does not make a durable bond.

Source note: The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus, saying 34, D. Lyman Jr. translation (1856).

“A true friend is, as it were, another self.”

The phrase captures the intimacy of friendship: another person becomes close enough that concern for them resembles concern for oneself.

Source note: Cicero’s De Amicitia describes true friendship as transferring natural self-love into a bond with another person.

“My good opinion once lost, is lost forever.”

Darcy presents trust and esteem as difficult to restore once serious judgment has turned against someone, revealing both the firmness and the potential rigidity of his early character.

Source note: Pride and Prejudice, Chapter XI, Project Gutenberg #1342. Fitzwilliam Darcy says this to Elizabeth Bennet during their discussion of faults; Elizabeth immediately identifies the position as implacable resentment, so the novel itself does not leave the maxim unchallenged.

“Thine own friend, and thy father’s friend, forsake not.”

Longstanding relationships carry accumulated trust and should not be discarded casually when circumstances change.

Source note: Proverbs 27:10 in the King James Version; opening command of the verse.