When two people meet, neither of them thinks anything of it, it’s just a social run-in at first. It’s invisible in the moment, however, as time passes, continuous interaction with each other can turn a simple acquaintance into a life-long friendship. As reflected in these friendship quotes, there are many ups and downs to an otherwise naturally easy-going bond.
If you’re wondering what might be the best quote on friendship, this list might be of help. Quotes from poets like Oscar Wilde and fighters (both in and out of the ring) like Muhammad Ali, the collective knowledge accumulated here just might paint a picture of what exactly friendship is, be it just for a friend or a best friend. And at the same time, perhaps it might help you understand this strong bond between two people or simply give you words with which you should be able to express your love to your friend.
The best quotes a friendship can give birth to are gathered here, so dig in and share the ones you like the most with your friends. Just to show your appreciation for their company and existence in your life.
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“Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest. It’s about who walked into your life, said, “I’m here for you”, and proved it.”
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” – Muhammad Ali
People I know just named their daughter; Eiza (pronounced "eye-zuh")
“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
“Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.” — Oscar Wilde
“You know what sucks about getting older? Your friends have known you for way too long. They’ve got too much on you. I want friends who still lie to me because they don’t want to hurt my feelings. I sadly kind of mean that.” – Nick Miller, "New Girl"
“Friendship takes work. Finding friends, nurturing friendships, scheduling face time, it all take a tremendous amount of work. But it’s worth it. If you put in the effort, you’ll see the rewards of positive friends who will make your life extraordinary.” – Maya Angelou
"Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart." – Eleanor Roosevelt
"Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer." – Ed Cunningham
“There are three things that grow more precious with age; old wood to burn, old books to read, and old friends to enjoy.” — Henry Ford
“A good friend is a connection to life — a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.” — Lois Wyse, "Women Make the Best Friends: A Celebration"
“A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your success!” – Doug Larson
“I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar.” — Robert Brault
“Friends joke with one another. ‘Hey, you’re poor. Hey, your momma’s dead.’ That’s what friends do.” – Michael Scott, "The Office"
“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.” — Bernard Meltzer
"There are friends, there is family and then there are friends that become family." – Unknown
"Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts." – Margaret Lee Runbeck
“Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.” — Richard Bach
“True friends are those rare people who come to find you in dark places and lead you back to the light.”
“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.”— Octavia Butler
“I still have friends from primary school. And my two best girlfriends are from secondary school. I don’t have to explain anything to them. I don’t have to apologize for anything. They know. There’s no judgment in any way.” — Emma Watson
“It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.” — Dumbledore, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone"
“Friendship — my definition — is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don’t have trust, the friendship will crumble.” ― Stieg Larsson
"If you have two friends in your lifetime, you're lucky. If you have one good friend, you're more than lucky." - S.E. Hinton
"One friend with whom you have a lot in common is better than three with whom you struggle to find things to talk about. We never needed best friend gear because I guess with real friends you don't have to make it official. It just is." - Mindy Kaling
"Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them." – Anna Taylor
"Share your smile with the world. It's a symbol of friendship and peace." – Christie Brinkley
"A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in your garden." – Unknown
"Good friends are like stars. You don't always see them, but you know they're always there." – Unknown
"A good friend is like a four-leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have." – Irish Proverb
"There's nothing like a really loyal, dependable, good friend. Nothing." – Jennifer Aniston
"If we treated ourselves as well as we treated our best friend, can you imagine?" – Meghan Markle
"A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down." – Arnold H. Glasgow
"A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future and accepts you just the way you are."
"This the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected." – Charles Lamb
"A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails." – Donna Roberts
"There is nothing better than a friend unless it is a friend with chocolate." – Linda Grayson
"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out." – Walter Winchell
"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend." – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” — Oprah Winfrey
“Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend.” — Bill Watterson, "Calvin and Hobbes"
“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” – C.S. Lewis
“Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.” – Thomas J. Watson
“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” — Audrey Hepburn
“The greatest gift in life is the gift of friendship, and I have received it” — Hubert Humphrey
“Every friendship goes through ups and downs. Dysfunctional patterns set in; external situations cause internal friction; you grow apart and then bounce back together.” – Mariella Frostrup
“When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands.” – Maria Shriver
“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” – Amy Poehler
“Friendship is a pretty full-time occupation if you really are friendly with somebody. You can’t have too many friends because then you’re just not really friends.” – Truman Capote
“Throughout life, you will meet one person who is like no other. You could talk to this person for hours and never get bored, you could tell this person things and they will never judge you. This person is your soulmate, your best friend. Don’t ever let them go.” – Unknown
“True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance.” – Henry David Thoreau
“There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.” — Paramahansa Yogananda
“That’s how it goes, kids. The friends, neighbors, drinking buddies, and partners in crime you love so much when you’re young, as the years go by, you just lose touch. You will be shocked when you discover how easy it is in life to part ways with people forever. That’s why, when you find someone you want to keep around, you do something about it.” – Ted Mosby, "How I Met Your Mother"
“Lose one friend, lose all friends, lose yourself. Why? Because nothing else seemed important.” ― "Boy Meets World"
“The human spirit is more powerful than any drug and that is what needs to be nourished with work, play, friendship, and family. These are the things that matter.” — "Awakenings"
“Best friend: the one that you can be mad at only for a short period of time because you have important stuff to tell them.”
"I always say, Lorelei Lee got it wrong in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes”. It's not that diamonds are a girl's best friend, but it's your best friends who are your diamonds. It's your best friends who are supremely resilient, made under pressure, and of astonishing value. They're everlasting; they can cut glass if they need to." - Gina Barreca
"You don't have to have anything in common with people you've known since you were five. With old friends, you've got your whole life in common." - Lyle Lovett
"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
“She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.” — Toni Morrison, “Beloved”
“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.” – Maya Angelou, “Letter to My Daughter”
"Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you." – Misty Copeland
"It's not that diamonds are a girl's best friend, but it's your best friends who are your diamonds." – Gina Barreca
"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant." – Socrates
"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart." – Elisabeth Foley
"Rejoicing in our joy, not suffering over our suffering, makes someone a friend." – Friedrich Nietzsche
"You find out who your real friends are when you're involved in a scandal." – Elizabeth Taylor
"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them." – Ralph Waldo Emerson
"The real test of friendship is: can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple?" – Eugene Kennedy
"If you live to be a hundred, I hope I live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." – Winnie the Pooh
"Accountability in friendship is the equivalent of love without strategy." – Anita Brookner
"The love that comes from friendship is the underlying fact of a happy life." – Chelsea Handler
“Real friendship is when your friend comes over to your house and then you both just take a nap.” — Anonymous
“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
“And what is a friend? More than a father, more than a brother: a traveling companion, with him, you can conquer the impossible, even if you must lose it later. Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.” ― Elie Wiesel, "The Gates of the Forest"
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” – Albert Schweitzer
“That’s when I realized what a true friend was. Someone who would always love you – the imperfect you, the confused you, the wrong you – because that is what people are supposed to do.” — R. J. L.
“The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing… not healing, not curing… that is a friend who cares.” – Henri Nouwen
“Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of one another.” – Eustace Budgell
“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.” – William Shakespeare
“The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul.” – Shanna Rodriguez
“I think if I’ve learned anything about friendship, it’s to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don’t walk away, don’t be distracted, don’t be too busy or tired, don’t take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff.” — Jon Katz
“The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away.” — Barbara Kingsolver
“You can always tell a real friend: when you’ve made a fool of yourself he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job.” — Laurence J. Peter
“Every friendship travels at some time through the black valley of despair. This tests every aspect of your affection. You lose the attraction and the magic. Your sense of each other darkens and your presence is sore. If you can come through this time, it can purify with your love, and falsity and need will fall away. It will bring you onto new ground where affection can grow again.” — John O’Donohue
“We’re sisters; you’re my family. What is you, is me. There’s nothing that you could ever say to make me let go.” – Blair Waldorf, "Gossip Girl"
“True friends are like diamonds — bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style.” – Nicole Richie
“Never let your best friends get lonely… keep disturbing them.” – Candlelight Publications
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” — Marcel Proust
"A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside." - Winnie the Pooh
"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes." - Henry David Thoreau
"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature." - Jane Austen
"Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life—and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next." - Dean Koontz
"That was what a best friend did: hold up a mirror and show you your heart." - Kristin Hannah
“The truth is, no matter how lonely you might feel, you’re never going through anything alone.... You can choose your family.” – Jennifer Lopez
“Friendships between women, as any woman will tell you, are built of a thousand small kindnesses... swapped back and forth and over again." – Michelle Obama, “Becoming”
"I don't know what I would have done so many times in my life if I hadn't had my girlfriends." – Reese Witherspoon
"One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human." – George Santayana
“If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.” – Winnie the Pooh
“Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.” – Thomas Aquina
Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them.” – Francesco Guicciardini
“The real test of friendship is: can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple?” – Eugene Kennedy
“A friend is an emotional bond, just like friendship is a human experience.” – Simon Sinek
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” – Anais Nin
“Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare — and precious as a pearl.” – Tahar Ben Jelloun
“Best friends don’t necessarily have to talk every day. They don’t even need to talk for weeks. But when they do, it’s like they never stopped talking.” – Unknown
“We made a deal ages ago. Men, babies, it doesn’t matter… We’re soulmates.” – Samantha Jones, "Sex and the City"
“A strong friendship doesn’t need daily conversation and doesn’t always need togetherness. As long as the relationship lives in the heart, true friends will never part.” – Unknown
"Hence (if you will not misunderstand me) the exquisite arbitrariness and irresponsibility of this love. I have no duty to be anyone's Friend and no man in the world has a duty to be mine. No claims, no shadow of necessity. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself (for God did not need to create). It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival." - C.S. Louis
"Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by, the doubling of our joy, and diving of our grief." - Joseph Addison
"What I realise now in hindsight is that there is a natural ebb and flow to friendships. There are times you think there's nothing left between you, that you've hit the bottom, but the special ones survive, find ways of restoring themselves." - Colette McBeth
"Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love." – Jane Austen
“As much as a BFF can make you go WTF, there’s no denying we’d be a little less rich without them.” — "Gossip Girl"
“One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.”– George Santayana
“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” – Khalil Gibran
"Remember that life's most valuable antiques are dear old friends." - H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
