A Little Book of Friendship

by Ruskin Bond

‘Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.’ —Rumi

‘Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?’ —Abraham Lincoln

‘When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.’ —Japanese proverb

‘One day,’ said the Persian poet Saadi, ‘I saw a rose bush surrounded by a tuft of grass. “What!” I cried, “Does that vile plant dare to place itself in the company of roses?” I was about to tear the grass away when it meekly addressed me, saying, “Spare me! I am not the rose, it is true; but from my perfume any one can know at least that I have lived with roses.”’

‘How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live ’em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give ’em.’ —Shel Silverstein

‘Can miles truly separate you from friends… If you want to be with someone you love, aren’t you already there?’ —Richard Bach

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

‘Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.’ —Ally Condie

‘A man without a smiling face must not open a shop.’ —Chinese proverb

‘Friendship is a sheltering tree,’ wrote Coleridge. And how often we compare friendship to a tree—steadfast, sturdy, comforting, ever present: until we cut it down.

Blessed is the house upon whose walls the shade of an old tree gently falls.

‘Don’t you see that that blessed conscience of yours is nothing but other people inside you?’ —Luigi Pirandello

‘In giving advice, seek to help, not please your friend.’ —Solon

‘Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words.’ —Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot)

‘Food for one is enough for two.’ —Tunisian proverb

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

‘The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this?’ —Henry Thoreau

‘A friend cannot be known in prosperity; an enemy cannot be hidden in adversity.’ —Elbert Hubbard

‘Whatever joy there is in this world All comes from desiring others to be happy, And whatever suffering there is in the world All comes from desiring only myself to be happy.’ —Shantideva

over, I would have talked less and listened more. I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained and the sofa faded.’ —Erma Bombeck

‘Your closest friend is like the spouse you won’t divorce. To have both is the best and most sensible adultery.’ —Anonymous