A good friend is a treasure: someone with whom you can spend all your time with and still have fun; someone who listens to your problems and shares their own; and, perhaps most importantly, someone who can tell you when you’ve made a mistake without causing a rift. Our closest friends feel like family — they’re there through thick and thin, without judgment.
These relationships are so cherished that in 1935, the U.S. Congress decided to dedicate a national holiday to celebrate the closest friendships we have, our best friends. They settled on June 8, an often warm and breezy day when friends can get together outdoors and enjoy themselves. In honor of our closest confidantes, we’ve collected these 12 quotes about friendship, and all the joy that comes with it.
A true friend is one soul in two bodies.Aristotle
Love is only chatter, friends are all that matter.Gelett Burgess, artist and writer
But oh! the blessing it is to have a friend to whom one can speak fearlessly on any subject; with whom one's deepest as well as one's most foolish thoughts come out simply and safely.Dinah Craik, novelist
Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends.Jacques Delille, poet
The only way to have a friend is to be one.Ralph Waldo Emerson
Never explain — your friends don’t require it and your enemies won’t believe you, anyway.Elbert Hubbard, writer
I would rather walk with a friend in the dark than walk alone in the light.Helen Keller
I like friends who have independent minds because they tend to make you see problems from all angles.Nelson Mandela
True friendship withstands time, distance, and silence.Isabel Allende, writer
Our triumphs seem hollow unless we have friends to share them, and our failures are made bearable by their understanding.James Rachels, philosopher
Old friends are the great blessing of one's latter years — half a word conveys one's meaning. They have memory of the same events, and have the same mode of thinking.Horace Walpole, writer
A friend is worth all hazards we can run.Edward Young, poet
Photo credit: Daniele Colucci/ Unsplash
