A friend is…

… the boy who plays you in 1-on-1 until the score reaches 1 million to 1 million.

… the girl who teaches you to do cartwheels with no hands.

… the guy who takes you cruising while you listen to “Running with the Devil,” on volume 11.

… the ’67 Belvedere that gets you where you need to go even when it won’t shift into reverse.

… the roommate who stays up all night with you every time a girl turns you down.

… the guitar player who sings John Prine songs with you every night after dinner.

… the one who goes with you to Waffle House at 3 in the morning to finish your term paper.

… the man who visits you on the psych unit and makes it seem like you are sitting at your kitchen table.

… the woman who messages you about everything essential and nothing at all.

~ Tony Roberts, 5.24.2018

 

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art…. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival. ― C.S. Lewis.

 

Someone who can tell you what you need to hear & not what you want to hear. ~ Susie Johnson.

 

The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship. ― Ralph Waldo Emerson.

 

Friendship is a relationship where intimacy transcends time. ~ Michael Kremer.

 

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing. ― Elie Wiesel

 

A friend loves your faults as well as your strengths, because all are a part of you. ~ Jennifer Johnson.

 

The best mirror is an old friend. ― George Herbert.

 

A friend is someone who allows me to love them and from whom I can receive love. ~ Ann Hart.

 

There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends. ― Sylvia Plath.

 

A friend is a person you can be your best self with. Possibly your one true self. ~ Kim Graves.

 

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over. ― Ray Bradbury.

 

A friend is someone who is steadfast, and speaks the truth in love, even when it’s hard to say, or hard to hear. ~ Kelcey Rockhold.

 

Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone. ― Vincent van Gogh

 

Someone you share a history with who you still look forward to seeing.  ~ George Love.

 

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

 

They say birds of a feather flock together, so I think a common interest is an important aspect. The tinder before the kindling that starts the fire, so to speak.  ~ David Featherston.

 

I hold this to be the highest task of a bond between two people: that each should stand guard over the solitude of the other ― Rainer Maria Rilke.

 

Friends notice when you’re not yourself, and they stick close, to help you find your way back to who you are. ~ Jill Goble.

 

Anybody can look at you. It’s quite rare to find someone who sees the same world you see. ― John Green.

 

A true friend is always honest, even when it hurts and someone who always wants you to be happy, and is accepting of your choices whether they agree with them or not. ~ Connie Akers.

 

A faithful friend is a strong defense;
And he that hath found him hath found a treasure.” ― Louisa May Alcott.

 

Warm camaraderie. ~ Gary Goble.

 

Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief. ― Marcus Tullius Cicero.

 

>Trustworthy, supportive, kind, nonjudgmental, loving, caring, reliable, fun.  ~ Lisa Trusley Allen.

 

So long as we love we serve; so long as we are loved by others, I would almost say that we are indispensable; and no man is useless while he has a friend. ― Robert Louis Stevenson.

 

Someone who likes you unconditionally.  ~ Mark Dile.

 

Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship. ― Dorothy Parker

 

My best friends are those people that even though we may live in separate states, separate countries, separate lives, when you get together, it’s like you’re with yourself. It’s comfortable. It’s natural. No one has to work hard at it. It’s a feeling of trust and easiness.  ~ Becki Hensley Habig

 

The language of Friendship is not words, but meanings. ― Henry David Thoreau.

 

A true friend is a person that brings out your best. ~ Basil Miller.

 

A single rose can be my garden; a single friend, my world. ― Leo F. Buscaglia.

 

Friendship: a point of view based on the belief of a specialness in another person that distinguishes them from others. Only some are special within the realm of separateness, but all are friends when there are no others. ~ David S. Mason.

 

One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion― Simone de Beauvoir.

 

Someone who helps me to be more like Jesus on a daily basis and holds me accountable when I’m not. ~ Alisha Roberts Wolpert.

 

There is one friend in the life of each of us who seems not a separate person, however dear and beloved, but an expansion, an interpretation, of one’s self, the very meaning of one’s soul.― Edith Wharton,

 

Someone that has your back. It doesn’t matter that you my not see or talk to them in a while but when you do you pickup where you left off. ~ Kimmie D. Berke-Harlow.

 

He that is thy friend indeed,
He will help thee in thy need:
If thou sorrow, he will weep;
If thou wake, he cannot sleep:
Thus of every grief in heart
He with thee doth bear a part.
These are certain signs to know
Faithful friend from flattering foe.― William Shakespeare.

 

Someone who knows the “true you.” Someone with whom you have mutual likes, can laugh and have fun with, and also cry with. Someone to whom you can pour out your soul, and they treat it so gently. ~ Nancy Naber.

 

If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country. ― E.M. Forster.

 

Someone who you can rely upon and is not blood-related. Someone who knows you well enough not to judge, and to know when you need a hand up or a kick in the seat. ~ Jamie Coffman.

 

The companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain. ― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley.

 

Someone who understands you and accepts you as a person, and who also sticks by you and seeks to build you up in whatever way necessary. ~ Sam Goble.

 

The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships. ― Abraham Lincoln.

 

Friends are like oxygen; you don’t realize how much you depend on them until they aren’t around you any more. ~ Julie Hughes.

 

Your noble friend will not accept pretension but will gently and very firmly confront you with your own blindness. Such friendship is creative and critical; it is willing to negotiate awkward and uneven territories of contradiction and woundedness. ― John O’Donohue.

 

Loyal, honest, caring & kind.  ~ Heather Rawlings.

 

We need to remember what’s important in life: friends, waffles, work. Or waffles, friends, work. Doesn’t matter, but work is third. ― Leslie Knope.

 

In a word… dependable.  ~ Valeri Towne-Torquato.

 

Friendship… is a plant which cannot be forced — true friendship is no gourd spring up in a night and withering in a day.” ― Charlotte Brontë.

 

… believing in each other, rooting for each other, listening without judgment.  ~ Veronica Johnson.

 

“We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet.
Even longer,’ Pooh answered.”   ~ A.A. Milne.

 

True friendship can withstand time, distance, and conflict. If you and your friend can honor and care for each other despite these hiccups then you have a mutual friendship…with a true friend.  ~ Leanne Sype.

 

She is a friend of mine. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind. ― Toni Morrison.

 

Someone with whom you truly feel “at home”, … [one] to share your heart without fear of shame or censure. Within the enjoyment and safety of that shared life, there is room for counsel, challenge, and sharpening, with the goal of building each other up.   ~ Susan Vos McCracken.

 

A hunted man sometimes wearies of distrust and longs for friendship. ― J.R.R. Tolkien.

 

[A friend]… respectfully lets you feel it’s okay to be yourself even when you disagree.  ~ Mike Lee.

 

Love is friendship set to music.― Jackson Pollock

 

… one with whom you share that deeper level of shalom. That deeper level of wholeness, peace, and harmony in your relationship that can only be entered into through the Christ.  ~ Brandon Andress.

 

Age appears best in four things: old wood to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust and old authors to read.― Francis Bacon

 

… someone who you can be completely vulnerable with without fear of judgment or condemnation ~ Joshua Gerard Detwiler.

 

Friendship is love without wings. ― George Gordon Byron.

 

Friendship knows no boundaries of time and space. The intimacy of friendship can be recalled at any time.  ~ Sarah Richey.

 

Ah, how good it feels! The hand of an old friend. ― Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

 

A connection between two people on a personal, deeper level.  ~ Patti Lux Matthews

 

The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money. — Mark Twain

 

Someone who is there to share struggles, problems, and celebrations.  ~ Lisa Pein.

 

One of the principal functions of a friend is to suffer (in a milder and symbolic form) the punishments that we should like, but are unable, to inflict upon our enemies. ― Aldous Huxley

 

A friend is someone with whom you’ve made a connection – an understanding, similar point of view, or circumstance… Some are kindred spirits – you speak the same language, and feel strongly about similar things… Having them out of the fabric of your life leaves a gap.  ~ Jan Hoffman.

 

“A true friend unbosoms freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably.”― William Penn.

 

A friend is someone you can turn to on your worst of days. They don’t judge but give honest, sometimes painful advice. They also know you well enough to just listen. ~ Mabria Kinnett.

 

He is your friend who pushes you nearer to God.― Abraham Kuyper.

 

A friend is someone who loves you even when you are unlovely. They rejoice with you in victories and walk beside you through the storms.  ~ Marie Clyburn Pendleton.