If the traveler cannot find
Master or friend to go with him,
Let him travel alone
Rather than with a fool for company.

Buddha Gautama  (563–483 BC)
5. The Fool, "The Dhammapada"
Translated from Pali by Thomas Byrom

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant.

Socrates  (469–399 BC)

A friend to all is a friend to none.

Aristotle  (384–322 BC)

It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.

Epicurus  (341–270 BC)

The firmest friendship is based on an identity of likes and dislikes.

Sallust  (86–34 BC)

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.

Lucius Annaeus Seneca  (4 BC – AD 65)

I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.

Plutarch  (AD 46–120)

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.

George Washington  (1732–1799)

Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

George Washington  (1732–1799)

Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.

George Washington  (1732–1799)

A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.

George Washington  (1732–1799)

But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine.

Thomas Jefferson  (1743–1826)

An injured friend is the bitterest of foes.

Thomas Jefferson  (1743–1826)

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Ralph Waldo Emerson  (1803–1882)

A friend is one before whom I may think aloud.

Ralph Waldo Emerson  (1803–1882)

A friend is one who has the same enemies as you have.

Abraham Lincoln  (1809–1865)

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?

Abraham Lincoln  (1809–1865)