For Auld Lang Syne | Page 2

which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. No receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or confession.
--Bacon.

Be true to thy friend. Never speak of his faults to another, to show thy own discrimination; but open them all to him, with candor and true gentleness; forgive all his errors and his sins, be they ever so many; but do not excuse the slightest deviation from rectitude. Never forbear to dissent from a false opinion, or a wrong practice, from mistaken motives of kindness; nor seek thus to have thy own weaknesses sustained; for these things cannot be done without injury to the soul.
--Child.

Be admonished not to strike leagues of friendship with cheap persons, where no friendship can be.
--Emerson.

A day for toil, an hour for sport,?But for a friend life is too short.
--Emerson.

After a certain age a new friend is a wonder. There is the age of blossoms and sweet budding green, the age of generous summer, the autumn when the leaves drop, and then winter shivering and bare.
--Thackeray.

Bitter and unrelenting enemies often deserve better of us than those friends whom we are inclined to regard as pleasant companions; the former often tell us the truth, the latter never.
--Cicero.

Does friendship really go on to be more pain than pleasure? I doubt it, for even in its deepest sorrows there is a joy which makes ordinary pleasure a very poor, meaningless affair.
--Unknown.

Friendship does not spring up and grow great and become perfect all at once, but requires time and the nourishment of thoughts.
--Dante.

Even the utmost good-will and harmony and practical kindness are not sufficient for friendship, for friends do not live in harmony, merely, as some say, but in melody. We do not wish for friends to feed and clothe our bodies,--neighbors are kind enough for that,--but to do the like office to our spirits. For this, few are rich enough, however well disposed they may be.
--Thoreau.

A pure friendship inspires, cleanses, expands, and strengthens the soul.
--Alger.

A friend is he that loves, and he that is beloved.
--Hobbe.

Change, care, nor Time while life endure?Shall spoil our ancient friendship sure.
--Lang.

Every young man is the better for cherishing strong friendships with the wise and good; and he whose soul is knit to one or more chosen associates with whom he can sympathize in right aims and feelings, is thereby the better armed against temptation and confirmed in paths of virtue.
--Carlyle.

Believing hear, what you deserve to hear:?Your birthday, as my own, to me is dear.?Blest and distinguished days! which we should prize?The first, the kindest, bounty of the skies.?But yours gives most; for mine did only lend?Me to the world, yours gave to me a friend.
--Martial.

Choose for your friend him that is wise and good, and secret and just, ingenious and honest, and in those things which have a latitude, use your own liberty.
--Taylor.

Friendship is made up of esteem and pleasure; pity is composed of sorrow and contempt: the mind may for some time fluctuate between them, but it can never entertain both at once.
--Goldsmith.

Friends are much better tried in bad fortune than in good fortune.
--Aristotle.

Fellowship of souls does not consist in the proximity of persons. There are millions who live in close personal contact--dwell under the same roof, board at the same table, and work in the same shop--between whose minds there is scarcely a point of contact, whose souls are as far asunder as the poles; whilst, contrariwise, there are those separated by oceans and continents, ay, by the mysterious gulf that divides time from eternity, between whom there is a constant intercourse, a delightful fellowship. In truth, we have often more communion with the distant than the near.
--Dr. Thomas.

Friendship must live by faith and not by sight.
--Eliot.

Friends should not be chosen to flatter. The quality we should prize is that rectitude which will shrink from no truth. Intimacies, which increase vanity, destroy friendship.
--Channing.

Favors, and especially pecuniary ones, are generally fatal to friendship; for our pride will ever prompt us to lower the value of the gift by diminishing that of the donor. Ingratitude is an effort to recover our own esteem by getting rid of our esteem for our benefactor, whom we look upon as a sort of tooth-drawer, that has cured us of one pain by inflicting another.
--Smith.

Friendship throws a greater lustre on prosperity, while it lightens adversity by sharing in its griefs and anxieties.
--Cicero.

Friendship hath the skill and observation of the best physician; the diligence and vigilance of the best nurse; and the tenderness and patience of the best mother.
--Lord Clarendon.

Friendship! the precious gold of life?By age refined, yet ever new;?Tried in the crucible of time?It always rings of service true.
Friendship! the beauteous soul