Friendship
Outline · 2 ›
1.The nature and definition of friendship
1a.Friend as second self and union of souls
See also: Love 7a
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On FriendshipVol. 9
- p. 10Cicero dedicates the essay as friend to friend and presents Laelius and Scipio as the most remarkable friendship on record.read · scan
- p. 16Defines friendship as accord on all things with goodwill; it surpasses riches and power, gives confidence, shares joy, halves sorrow.read · scan
- p. 17–18Friend as a second self; friendship gives hope, survives death in memory, binds society against discord; loyalty in danger shown by Orestes and Pylades.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 130–131Cicero declares no one was ever dearer or more congenial than his friend, promises to make it known to posterity, and gives candid counsel and defense as a friend's duty.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 178Nisus and Euryalus introduced, Nisus renowned for friendship to the youth; brief characterization of devoted friendship.read · scan
- p. 293Nisus and Euryalus, friends with one care and one shared hazard; Euryalus refuses to be left behind, Nisus tries to spare him, showing loyalty and love.read · scan
- p. 293–300Nisus, fearing death, asks his friend to live and bury him; Euryalus insists on sharing the danger, so the friendship shows in mutual devotion and concern.read · scan
- p. 300Ascanius offers Euryalus 'my life's companion, and my bosom friend' with one faith and fate; Euryalus pledges truth and entrusts his mother to that bond.read · scan
- p. 305Euryalus offers himself for death, saying his only crime is too much love for his friend; Nisus dies avenging him. The narrator hails them as 'happy friends' of undying fame.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 261Pliny shares his gratification with a tender friend, treating him as another self in joys and sorrows; friendship with the proscribed was dangerous under Domitian.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 49–50Bound to friendship of perishable things, the soul is wretched at loss; friend as 'half of my soul,' Pylades and Orestes, one soul in two bodies.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 357Longs for intimate union with God, likening it to friend feasting with friend and beloved speaking to beloved; friendship as image of closeness.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 135Praises Peter Giles as ideal friend: kind, loving, faithful, trusty, earnest in affection, without dissimulation; no one compares with him in all points of friendship.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of FriendshipVol. 32
- p. 75Distinguishes common acquaintances from perfect friendship, where souls blend; his love for La Boétie is inexplicable: 'because it was he, because it was I.'read · scan
- p. 75Perfect friends merge wills; Blosius's total loyalty to Gracchus is defended as trust in a friend's virtuous will.read · scan
- p. 80In perfect friendship benefits and obligations dissolve since all is common; Eudamidas's will shows a friend giving the other the chance to serve.read · scan
- p. 80Perfect friendship is indivisible and cannot be multiplied; it overrides other duties, and Eudamidas's bequest honors his friends.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 307Presents Anselmo and Lothario as 'the Two Friends', bound by like manners and yielding to each other's wishes; also raises how a friend's visits to a married friend's house must be tempered.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 10–11Cites Pylades as the model of the constant friend, an ideal of friendship that poetry creates beyond nature.read · scan
- p. 17–18Names friendship in Nisus and Euryalus as a virtue that poetry makes visibly shine, teaching it even to the ignorant.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 69–71Bacon's fruits of friendship: a friend knows one's estate and gives safe counsel, bears a part in one's actions, speaks where one cannot, and is 'another himself'.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46
- p. 9–12Edward welcomes the returned Gaveston as 'thy friend, thyself, another Gaveston,' comparing Hercules and Hylas, offering his heart and wealth; Gaveston prizes only his love.read · scan
- p. 25–27Old Mortimer defends Edward's attachment to Gaveston by citing famous friendships: Alexander and Hephaestion, Hercules and Hylas, Achilles and Patroclus, Socrates and Alcibiades.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 317–318Loves his friend above kin and as he loves virtue; describes friendship as two souls made one, insatiable longing, and a noble affection reserved for the virtuous.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 67–68Beating without hope of amendment resembles an enraged enemy's fury rather than the good-will of a compassionate friend, implying friendship means goodwill and care.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 333Defines friendship as the next pleasure after family: a union of spirits, marriage of hearts, bound by virtue; may be sought abroad.read · scan
- p. 333–334Friendship requires freedom and forgiveness; friends are twins in soul sharing pain and goods; the true friend advises, assists, defends, and is constant.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, Hints towards an Essay on ConversationVol. 27
- p. 91A true friend is named among the ideals, like a good marriage, so demanding in ingredients that they subsist only in idea.read · scan
- p. 97Degenerate conversation has lost all notions of love, honour and friendship; the platonic refinements of friendship in earlier polite society are defended.read · scan
Jonathan Swift, On the Death of Esther Johnson [Stella]Vol. 27
- p. 122Swift mourns Stella as the truest, most virtuous friend; recounts her intimate friendship with a companion and his persuading them to move to Ireland for companionship.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 166–168Blair epigraph hails friendship as mysterious cement of the soul and solder of society; the epistle to Smith shows affectionate friendship, with travelling far to visit him.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CompensationVol. 5
- p. 101Love dissolves envy and inequality between persons; a brother becomes guardian and his virtue becomes mine, though this concerns love more than friendship specifically.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, FriendshipVol. 5
- p. 107Admiring a friend idealizes him; friendship is too good to believe, doubt shadows it, and the soul puts forth friends like leaves and sheds them in alternation.read · scan
- p. 109–110One must be equal to every friendship; approach a friend with austere worth and trust in his heart, for friendship is a sacred, divine relation.read · scan
- p. 110A friend is a sane man who requires no mask or stooping; he is a paradox and the masterpiece of nature, unlike society's civilities.read · scan
- p. 116Friendship needs self-possession and patience; the only way to have a friend is to be one; love reflects one's own worthiness.read · scan
- p. 118Friendship can be carried on one side without return; true love is never unrequited; its essence is entireness, magnanimity and trust.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 149Confidential friendship preceding marriage: two minds sharing all thoughts and discussing everything jointly, so that their writings become a joint product of shared thought.read · scan
1b.Friendship distinguished from kinship, love and marriage
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 85Odysseus wishes for a concordant marriage, a grief to foes and great joy to friends, touching on shared joy of friends.read · scan
- p. 113Alcinous says a friend with an understanding heart is no worse than a brother, ranking a loving friend beside kin as a cause of grief.read · scan
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 9A dutiful son is a friend to his brothers; friendliness among kin is tied to good rule.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 22He failed to keep the measure of love between minds, 'friendship's bright boundary,' confusing its clear brightness with the fog of lust.read · scan
- p. 31He defiled the spring of friendship with lust, clouding its brightness; love mixed with concupiscence brought jealousy, suspicion and quarrels.read · scan
- p. 31–32The sympathy and compassion felt at plays springs from a 'vein of friendship' that can be corrupted into lust.read · scan
BeowulfVol. 49
- p. 37–38Uncle and nephew sit true to each other, kindred in amity; Wealhtheow appeals to Hrothgar's and Hrothulf's goodwill and loyalty.read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49
- p. 314–315Sigurd and the Giukings live in honour and friendship and swear brotherhood as children of one father, sealing fellowship with kinship gifts.read · scan
Traditional BalladsVol. 40
- p. 61–62Lord Thomas seeks counsel from mother, brother and sister on whom to marry; kin advise by self-interest or affection, and he follows his mother's counsel. Concerns family more than friends.read · scan
Martin Luther, Concerning Christian LibertyVol. 36
- p. 368Christian love serves neighbours freely without distinguishing friends from enemies or seeking gratitude; each becomes a Christ to the other, a disinterested love beyond friendship.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of FriendshipVol. 32
- p. 72Distinguishes true friendship from ties of profit, pleasure, kinship; parent-child and brother relations lack the communication and equality friendship needs; admonition is friendship's chief office.read · scan
- p. 72–75Friendship is freely chosen, unlike natural duty; contrasts steady, tempered heat of true friendship with the feverish, fleeting fire of sexual love.read · scan
- p. 75Contrasts true friendship with love and marriage: friendship is spiritual, grows in fruition, and needs a lasting, free bond that women and Greek pederasty cannot satisfy.read · scan
- p. 75Assesses the Academy's view of male love as ending in friendship, valuing the beauty of mind, and distinguishes it from true friendship.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 21Remarks that unmarried men make the best friends, since they lack the ties of wife and children.read · scan
- p. 26–28Distinguishes kinds of love: nuptial love makes mankind, friendly love perfects it, wanton love corrupts it; love spread among many makes men humane.read · scan
Francis Bacon, The New AtlantisVol. 3
- p. 168–169Bensalemites, having no masculine love, are said to have the most faithful and inviolate friendships in the world, linked to chastity.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Mr. George HerbertVol. 15
- p. 378Refers to the friendship and sacred endearments between Donne and Magdalen Herbert, evidenced by letters and Donne's funeral sermon for her.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 316–317Wants to engross a friend's sorrows to ease them; sees Damon and Pythias, Achilles and Patroclus as possible; would die for a friend, ranking friends before kin.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 46Cleopatra distinguishes advising as a friend from as a lover, and says others envy her Antony's love more than his friendship.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 32–33Parents should move from awe to familiarity so grown children become affectionate friends; harshly treated sons will seek other friends and company where they can be at ease.read · scan
- p. 34Fear and awe give a father first power over his children, but love and friendship in riper years must hold it.read · scan
William Penn, Some Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 331–332Advises choosing a wife as friend and companion, a second self sharing toils; friendship belongs to souls of both sexes.read · scan
- p. 332–333Virtuous married couples exercise their friendship together; marriage as entire, sincere, constant affection, bound in love.read · scan
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier's FortuneVol. 26
- p. 363–364Tellheim's 'friendly tone' signals Minna's restored affection; mainly love, not friendship.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 220–222Offering a token of warm sincere friendship to a former love, reflecting that friendship is all duty now allows; also a farewell to a dear friend.read · scan
- p. 293–295Sylvander offers Clarinda friendship in place of love; debates friendship's limits against passion, pleads that her friendship blesses him, and mourns parting.read · scan
- p. 499–501A lover denied love pleads that Chloris at least let 'the friend be dear,' treating friendship as a consolation and lesser bond when love is refused.read · scan
Leigh Hunt, Deaths of Little ChildrenVol. 27
- p. 286–287Contrasts children with friends: children have not chosen kindness or stood by us from will, so friendship implies voluntary, chosen good offices and constancy in adversity.read · scan
George Long, M. Aurelius AntoninusVol. 2
- p. 303Antoninus and his adoptive father lived together in perfect friendship and confidence.read · scan
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1033–1034The lover calls his beloved 'my love, my only friend,' friendship as the deepest intimacy of marriage.read · scan
Robert Browning, A Blot in the 'ScutcheonVol. 18
- p. 382Tresham contrasts a brother's love with ripened friendship and esteem, saying sibling companionship of childhood play is a purer bond that later attachments displace.read · scan
Robert Browning, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1069–1070Rejected lover offers 'mere friends' companionship, reflecting that friendship is a lesser bond that still keeps much and asks little.read · scan
1c.Friendship as the greatest good and natural need
See also: Love 7a · Man 8b · Happiness 5b
Ecclesiastes; or, The PreacherVol. 44
- p. 339–340Two are better than one: companions lift each other when fallen, warm and defend each other; the solitary man's toil is vanity.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On FriendshipVol. 9
- p. 14–15Friendship rests on harmony of tastes, pursuits and sentiments; Laelius cherishes memory of Scipio; friendship called the greatest thing, fitting nature in prosperity and adversity.read · scan
- p. 26Answers those who would avoid friendship to escape anxiety: sharing a friend's fortunes and pains is part of virtue and humanity, not a reason to banish friendship.read · scan
- p. 37–38Everyone agrees friendship is indispensable; nature abhors isolation; even the misanthrope and the heaven-gazer need someone to share with.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 116Cicero ranks Caesar next after his friend Atticus and his children in regard, and delights in the affectionate boy who clings to him as mentor.read · scan
- p. 133–135Cicero assures his friend that he loves and delights in him above all, and sends a warm farewell to a common friend.read · scan
Pliny the Younger, Letters of PlinyVol. 9
- p. 239–240Pliny notes Artemidorus's good-natured error of overrating his friends' merits, and the warmth of his kind feeling toward them.read · scan
- p. 292Pliny praises Fuscus, whose friendship and esteem he returns with strong affection; he says love makes him weigh a friend's merit more strictly, not partially.read · scan
- p. 314–315Pliny defends lavish praise of friends as a noble error of benevolence, denying one can excess in friendship and rebuking those who censure friends.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 21Lists being soothed by friendship among the good gifts of God present even in boyhood.read · scan
- p. 26–27Human friendship is endeared by a sweet tie, the unity of many souls; yet it is a lower good whose immoderate pursuit leads to sin.read · scan
Thomas à Kempis, The Imitation of ChristVol. 7
- p. 246–247Man cannot live long without a friend; Jesus must be friend above all, more faithful than any friend; others are loved for his sake.read · scan
Michel de Montaigne, Of FriendshipVol. 32
- p. 72Montaigne praises his unspotted friendship with La Boétie, sincerely and inviolably kept, a rarity once in three ages; man is naturally drawn to society.read · scan
- p. 80–83A true friend is worth more than a kingdom and is rare; friendship demands sincerity of heart, unlike superficial service relationships.read · scan
Sir Philip Sidney, The Defense of PoesyVol. 27
- p. 45–46We delight in the happiness of our friends, and one who would laugh at it deserves ridicule; shared joy in friends' good fortune.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 65–66Solitude without friends is misery; a crowd is not company; one unfit for friendship is beast-like; a true friend relieves the swollen heart of griefs and fears.read · scan
- p. 66–67Kings raise favorites as companions and 'partners of cares' to gain friendship's fruit; Sylla, Caesar, Augustus and Tiberius examples show its value and risks.read · scan
- p. 67–68Even great princes need a friend to complete their felicity; closed men are 'cannibals of their own hearts'; sharing with a friend doubles joys and halves griefs.read · scan
Izaak Walton, The Life of Dr. John DonneVol. 15
- p. 343–344Walton's affection for his friend Donne prompts him to cite witnesses for his praise; Donne's London friendships 'multiplied the joys of his life' and bind him to the city.read · scan
Sir Thomas Browne, Religio MediciVol. 3
- p. 331Counts the love of his dearest friends, with peace of conscience and love of God, among the few things he calls earthly happiness.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 76–77Men lack heart; they would not make a friend of it.read · scan
- p. 86–87Being a sincere friend is listed among the virtues gained by taking the believer's side of the wager.read · scan
John Bunyan, The Pilgrim's ProgressVol. 15
- p. 207–208Proverb that one who forgets his Friend is ungrateful, set against forgetting one's Saviour.read · scan
John Locke, Some Thoughts Concerning EducationVol. 37
- p. 6–7Locke calls his treatise a mark of friendship with Clarke and says a long-continued friendship with an honest, useful, worthy man is life's greatest pleasure and best legacy.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 405–406Praises a woman who is handsome and witty yet 'a friend', valued for equable good humour, freedom from passion and pride.read · scan
- p. 415Heaven makes each depend on another, as master, servant or friend; mutual wants and frailties endear the tie and give rise to true friendship and love.read · scan
- p. 428–430Even those who shun mankind seek an admirer or would fix a friend; happiness and self-love are bound up with social sympathy.read · scan
- p. 430Bliss is the same for him who gives defence and him who finds a friend: friendship as equal blessing across conditions.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Preface to the English DictionaryVol. 39
- p. 195–196Johnson admits that the tenderness of friendship led him to break his rule and include a living friend's name among the quotations.read · scan
David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingVol. 37
- p. 301–302Notes that a selfish heart cannot conceive the heights of friendship and generosity, using it as an example of feelings lacking experience.read · scan
- p. 399Asserts that, by the experience of mankind, friendship is the chief joy of human life, alongside moderation as the source of tranquillity.read · scan
Oliver Goldsmith, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 526–527Where refinement stops, love's and friendship's darts fall blunted from hardened hearts; French social ease binds minds together but breeds dependence on others' praise.read · scan
Edmund Burke, A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and BeautifulVol. 24
- p. 39Names good company, lively conversation and the endearments of friendship as great pleasures; argues that society, and total solitude's pain, show we are made for fellowship.read · scan
William Cowper, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 535–537Alexander Selkirk's solitude makes him long for society, friendship and love as divine gifts; asks whether absent friends still think of him; Cowper also praises faithful Mary.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, The Tragedy of Faust, Part IVol. 19
- p. 11–12Poet longs for a peaceful nook where love and friendship yield the heart's truest bliss, set against the tumult of the crowd.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Hermann and DorotheaVol. 19
- p. 378–379The magistrate lists friendship, with parental love, among the beautiful things he saw in the calamity, daring impossibilities in hardship.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 67–68Among the heart's true pleasures, which riches cannot buy, Burns names the lover and the friend, setting companionship above rank and wealth as a source of happiness.read · scan
- p. 69–70Celebrates the friendly tear and sympathetic feeling; fate has given a friend in every care and ill, whose companionship lightens life's gloom and sustains him.read · scan
- p. 180–181Invokes warm Friendship's glow alongside Nature and Love as a force stronger than death, tied to the village of the Whitefoords.read · scan
- p. 226–228Writes verses for a particular friend, Willie Chalmers, out of fond regard for one who 'shares my bosom', praising his honest heart.read · scan
- p. 327–329Offers a poem as a gift, joy to 'share them with a friend'; sits with a kind friend rather than ride with a king, valuing his kindness.read · scan
- p. 426–428Prayer asks for 'the friend we trust, the fair we love' as one of life's chief contents, valuing trusted friendship.read · scan
- p. 540–543Burns offers a book as 'Friendship's pledge' to Chloris, praising 'Friendship's truest heart' as the dearest gift of Heaven and a comfort amid misfortune.read · scan
Samuel Taylor Coleridge, PoemsVol. 41
- p. 703–704Friendship is 'a sheltering tree', named among the joys of youth (Friendship, Love, Liberty) whose loss age laments.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 550–552The vine and bryony entwined image compares mutual support among plants to the weak who take one another for their stay; mutual dependence.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, A Defence of PoetryVol. 27
- p. 336Homeric poetry unveiled the truth and beauty of friendship, among other ideals, inspiring readers to imitate it.read · scan
- p. 351–352Names the delight of love and friendship as a high pleasure often wholly unalloyed by pain.read · scan
- p. 354Friendship listed with virtue, love and patriotism as among the consolations of life that poetry illumines.read · scan
- p. 354–355The enthusiasm of friendship, with virtue, love and patriotism, is linked to elevated emotions that lift us out of self.read · scan
Thomas Carlyle, Sir Walter ScottVol. 25
- p. 418Lists a wide circle of friends and loving admirers among the blessings that make Scott's life happy, so friendship counts as part of a fortunate life.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, An Address Delivered before the Senior Class in Divinity CollegeVol. 5
- p. 30–31Contrasts the formal, official language about Christ with the style of friendship and enthusiasm; the 'friend of man' made injurer, killing generous sympathy.read · scan
- p. 31–32Divine bards are called friends of my virtue, intellect and strength; a dear friend is named among things of beauty to be desired.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, FriendshipVol. 5
- p. 105Unspoken kindness pervades human life; affection quickens thought and conversation, and the ideal stranger who inspires our best talk loses that power once familiar.read · scan
- p. 107–109Life is a search for friendship; our pursuit is greedy and adulterate, so meeting disappoints; true friendship's laws are austere and slow-ripening.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The PoetVol. 5
- p. 181The poet, hidden in solitude, is known only to his own, who console him with love, yet cannot name his friends in verse.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, CharacterVol. 5
- p. 193–195Praises friendship between two virtuous men as life's most satisfying good; friends gravitate together by necessity, and should offer truth, silence and forbearance rather than demands.read · scan
- p. 195–196True relations are allowed, not contrived; meeting a friend halts life's hurry, and the friend is the hope of the heart.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, NatureVol. 5
- p. 224Nature is likened to an old friend and dear brother who takes a grave liberty with us and shames us out of affected chatter with strangers.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 265–266Those who love us enlarge our life and compensate misery, but those who reject us as unworthy are dearer, urging us to higher effort.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, English TraitsVol. 5
- p. 409–410Says anyone who has tasted the delight of friendship will respect social guards that shield it from intrusion by frivolous, distasteful people; friendship's value justifies exclusive manners.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 116Mill describes forming the friendship that was the chief blessing of his life, with the woman who later became his wife, and how her qualities won his admiration.read · scan
- p. 147–149Mill's friendship with his future wife was his greatest source of happiness and improvement; her marriage, its brevity and his grief at her loss.read · scan
William Makepeace Thackeray, Jonathan SwiftVol. 28
- p. 22Observes that a selfish man is sceptical about friendship, as a deaf man is indifferent to music; Swift's misanthropy reflects his own heart.read · scan
Richard Henry Dana, Jr., Two Years Before the MastVol. 23
- p. 367Observes that the sailor too has friends whose hearts bleed at cruelty done to him, so appeals to dependants' suffering apply equally to sailors.read · scan
Robert Louis Stevenson, Truth of IntercourseVol. 28
- p. 278Mastery of language governs intimacy: the man who speaks fully can open himself to friends and enjoy comradeship; without it, amiable qualities lie buried.read · scan
1d.Friendship as universal natural bond
See also: Love 8e
Buddhist WritingsVol. 45
- p. 598–600The perfection of good-will is to refresh friend and foe alike, as water cleanses all; the Buddha-to-be must treat friend and enemy impartially.read · scan
Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of EpictetusVol. 2
- p. 162The world is full of friends, God and men bound by ties of kinship; friendship as the natural universal bond.read · scan
- p. 163Diogenes as a true friend to men, enduring hardship for all mankind; his love of men is that of a minister of God.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 209Right reasoning faculty promises friendship toward men, alongside freedom from hasty judgment.read · scan
- p. 267Friendships and communities characterize rational animals as a higher form of natural mutual attraction, now forgotten by men.read · scan
- p. 269Even those who hate or blame you are by nature friends and should be treated with goodwill.read · scan
- p. 284Depart from men kindly and friendly, since nature united us, parting as from kinsmen without resistance.read · scan
- p. 286–287Do not be alienated from those who obstruct you, since they are by nature kinsmen and friends; enmity is desertion.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 210–213Utopians call peoples who supply magistrates their fellows and those they have benefited their friends, and hold that nature's love between men makes leagues unnecessary.read · scan
- p. 213–215Utopians hold that natural fellowship and love and benevolence bind people better than treaties; friendship does not grow from formal leagues, but from hearty affection.read · scan
Alexander Pope, Solitude; On a Certain Lady at Court; Essay on ManVol. 40
- p. 430Benevolence widens from self-love outward; the friend, with parent and neighbour, is among the first objects the expanding circle of affection embraces.read · scan
Adam Smith, An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of NationsVol. 10
- p. 365Commerce ought naturally to be a bond of union and friendship among nations as among individuals, but merchants' jealousy has made it a source of discord.read · scan
Immanuel Kant, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of MoralsVol. 32
- p. 334Sympathy and good-will toward others in distress are argued to be rationally willed, since one will need others' help.read · scan
Alexander Hamilton and John Jay, The Federalist, Nos. I and IIVol. 43
- p. 204–205Shared ancestry and fighting side by side make Americans a 'band of brethren' bound by strong ties, opposed to jealous, alien sovereignties; friendly aids across the land.read · scan
Robert Burns, Poems and SongsVol. 6
- p. 85–87The social, friendly, honest man fulfils Nature's plan; hopes Burns and Lapraik will be knit closer in friendship's ties.read · scan
Friedrich von Schiller, Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of ManVol. 32
- p. 217–218The cultivated man makes nature his friend and honours its friendship while bridling its caprice; friendship as a figure of right relation.read · scan
Articles of ConfederationVol. 43
- p. 159–160Mutual friendship and intercourse among peoples of the states is to be secured and perpetuated through shared privileges and free movement.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Man the ReformerVol. 5
- p. 55–56Preaches love and kindness as the remedy for social distrust; the rich man among laborers does not feel among friends, and affection flowing to fellows would transform society.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoliticsVol. 5
- p. 250Friendship, like love, is the model of grand simple sentiments that thousands might exercise toward each other, grounding a society without force.read · scan
Abraham Lincoln, Lincoln's First Inaugural AddressVol. 43
- p. 320Argues that separated sections remain face to face, and that friends can make laws and keep them more easily than aliens can make treaties.read · scan
Walt Whitman, Preface to Leaves of GrassVol. 39
- p. 399Envisions equal friendship among citizens, brothers calling no man master, as mark of a free people.read · scan
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