Friendship

by Ralph Waldo Emerson

A ruddy drop of manly blood

The surging sea outweighs,
The world uncertain comes and goes;
The lover rooted stays.
I fancied he was fled,And, after many a year,
Glowed unexhausted kindliness,
Like daily sunrise there.
My careful heart was free again,
O friend, my bosom said,
Through thee alone the sky is arched,
Through thee the rose is red;
All things through thee take nobler form,
And look beyond the earth,
The mill-round of our fate appears
A sun-path in thy worth.
Me too thy nobleness had taught
To master my despair;
The fountains of my hidden life
Are through thy friendship fair.

A Poison Tree
By William Blake

I was angry with my friend:

I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I waterd it in fears
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veiled the pole;
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretchd beneath the tree.

If
by Rudyard Kipling
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream and not make dreams your master;
If you can think and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings---nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

A true friend walks in when others walk out.

- Walter Winchell

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
Helen Keller
Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just
walk beside me and be my friend.
-- Albert Camus
A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.
-- Elbert Hubbard
Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.
Mark Twain
Friends are those rare people who ask how you are and then wait to hear the answer.
-- Unknown Source
Who ceases to be a friend never was one.
-- Greek proverb
Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.
-- Virginia Woolf
The good man is the friend of all living things.
-- Mahatma Gandhi
Every man passes his life in the search after friendship.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
We talk of choosing our friends, but friends are self-elected
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) U.S. poet, essayist and

Friends are like fiddle strings, they must not be screwed too tight.
-- English proverb
The time to make friends is before you need them.
-- Proverb
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
May God defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies.
-- Voltaire
A man is known by the company he avoids.
-- Unknown Source
Glory Of Friendship - by Ralph Waldo Emerson
The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand,
nor the kindly smile nor the joy of companionship;
it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when
he discovers that someone else believes in him and is
willing to trust him.