For Auld Lang Syne | Page 8

an abode more suitable to his dignity, he replied that he
should think himself sufficiently accommodated if he could see that
narrow habitation filled with real friends.
--Johnson.

While friendship embraces very many and great advantages, she
undoubtedly surpasses all in this, that she shines with a brilliant hope
over the future, and never suffers the spirit to be weakened or to sink.
Besides, he who looks on a true friend, looks, as it were, upon a kind of
image of himself; wherefore, friends, though absent, are still present;
though in poverty, they are rich; though weak, yet in the enjoyment of
health; and, what is still more difficult to assert, though dead, they are

alive; so entirely does the honor, the memory, the regret of friends
attend them.
--Cicero.

Thine own friend and thy father's friend, forsake not.
--Solomon.

While I keep my senses I shall prefer nothing to a pleasant friend.
--Horace.

What a great blessing is a friend, with a breast so trusty that thou
mayest safely bury all thy secrets in it, whose conscience thou mayest
fear less than thine own, who can relieve thy cares by his conversation,
thy doubts by his counsels, thy sadness by his good humor, and whose
very look gives comfort to thee!
--Seneca.

What can be more delightful than to have one to whom you can speak
on all subjects just as to yourself? Where would be the great enjoyment
in prosperity if you had not one to rejoice in it equally with yourself?
And adversity would indeed be difficult to endure without some one
who would bear it even with greater regret than yourself.
--Cicero.

With one friend I would count myself rich.

--Nusbaum.

What is bestowed on our friends is beyond the reach of fortune; the
riches that thou hast given away are the only riches that thou really
possessest.
--Martial.

Well chosen friendship, the most noble
Of virtues, all our joys makes
double
And into halves divides our trouble.
--Denham.

We are most of us very lonely in this world; you who have any who
love you, cling to them and thank God.
--Thackeray.
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
I summon up
remembrance of things past,
I sigh the lack of many a thing I sought,

And with old woes new wail my dear time's waste:
Then can I
drown an eye, unused to flow,
For precious friends hid in death's
dateless night,
And weep afresh love's long since canceled woe,

And moan the expense of many a vanished sight:
Then can I grieve at
grievances foregone,
And heavily from woe to woe tell o'er
The sad
account of fore-bemoaned moan,
Which I new pay as if not paid
before.
But if the while I think on thee, dear friend,
All losses are
restored and sorrows end.
--Shakespeare.

You shall perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes; I am wealthy in
my friends.
--Shakespeare.

You must, therefore, love me myself, and not my circumstances, if we
are to be real friends.
--Cicero.

With conscious pride I view the band
Of faithful friends that round
me stand,
With pride exult that I alone
Can join these scattered
gems in one;
For they're a wreath of pearls, and I
The silken cord
on which they lie.
'Tis mine their inmost souls to see,
Unlocked is
every heart to me,
To me they cling, on me they rest,
And I've a
place in every breast.
For they're a wreath of pearls, and I
The
silken cord on which they lie.
--From the Arabic.

What room can there be for friendship, or who can be a friend to any
one whom he does not love for his own sake? And what is loving, from
which verb (amo) the very name of friendship (amicitia) is derived, but
wishing a certain person to enjoy the greatest possible good fortune,
even if none of it accrues to one's self?
--Cicero.

What makes us so changeable in our friendships is the difficulty we
have in discerning the qualities of the heart, and the ease with which we
discern those of the mind.

--La Rochefoucauld.

Worldly friendship is profuse in honeyed words, passionate
endearments, commendations of beauty, while true friendship speaks a
simple honest language.
--De Sales.

You cannot find a man who fully loves any living thing, that, dolt and
dullard though he be, is not in some spot lovable himself. He gets
something from his friends if he had nothing at all before.
--Brooks.

We can live without a brother, but not without a friend.
--German Proverb.

Whatever is founded on mere carnal love, vanity or frivolity, on such
attractions as are purely external, a sweet voice, personal beauty,
superficial cleverness or outward show, is unworthy to be called
friendship.
--De Sales.

You do surely bar the door upon your own liberty, if you deny