Friendship
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5.Flattery and the false friend
5a.Flatterer distinguished from friend
Marcus Tullius Cicero, On FriendshipVol. 9
- p. 39–40Flattery is subversive of friendship, which requires frankness and two minds becoming one; distinguishing true friend from flatterer.read · scan
- p. 41Friendship rests on truthfulness and openness; flatterers and those who love flattery cannot be true friends; beware covert flattery.read · scan
Plutarch, CaesarVol. 12
- p. 312Balbus, a friend or rather flatterer, hinders Caesar from rising; distinguishes true friend from flatterer in counsel.read · scan
Plutarch, AntonyVol. 12
- p. 367–368Antony's friends try to counsel him and are driven away by Cleopatra's flatterers' insolence; Geminius bears mockery to give honest counsel, showing loyalty strained.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 148Aphorism that flattering friends pervert while reproachful enemies correct; a friend's flattery versus an enemy's rebuke as moral influence.read · scan
Niccolò Machiavelli, The PrinceVol. 36
- p. 76–77Princes must choose friends and counsellors carefully, guard against flatterers, and allow chosen advisers free, honest counsel while judging for themselves.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 142–157More says his love for Raphael increased on seeing his loyalty to a man; flattering courtiers who echo the Cardinal are contrasted.read · scan
Benvenuto Cellini, The Autobiography of Benvenuto CelliniVol. 31
- p. 333Saint Paul, professing friendship for Cellini, jokes about hanging him to curry favor; false friendship shown as flattery of the powerful.read · scan
Francis Bacon, Essays, Civil and MoralVol. 3
- p. 127Cites Solomon: praising a friend loudly, rising early, is no better than a curse; excessive praise harms.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46
- p. 52–54Edward avenges 'my dearest friend, to whom our soul was knit'; barons denounce his flatterers and company as pernicious, contrasting true friendship with flattering companions.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 791Ferd's couplet says the true friend of a great man checks his ruin by frankly railing at his faults, contrasting friend with flatterer.read · scan
John Dryden, All for Love; or, The World Well LostVol. 18
- p. 54–55Antony says Ventidius truly loves him because he never flattered his vices; Ventidius loves him despite waning favour; Antony mourns Dolabella, a friend so close they were one soul, now lost.read · scan
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier's FortuneVol. 26
- p. 332–333Werner is called a true friend who would give his life for the Major, while the landlord's claim to be Tellheim's friend is contested, contrasting real and false friendship.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 54Shows sycophantic table-companions who flatter their patron; one careless word ends fellowship and the guest is never invited again, revealing fragility of interested companionship.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Over-SoulVol. 5
- p. 145–146Sincere, plain dealing rather than flattery is the highest compliment; also, trust that the friend one seeks will come if it is best.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, New England ReformersVol. 5
- p. 263–264We wish of each other not flattery but conviction and exposure of error; honest rude truth is trusted and thanked, and a friendly influence wins men over.read · scan
John Stuart Mill, AutobiographyVol. 25
- p. 173Odger says working people want friends, not flatterers; true friendship means telling unwelcome faults sincerely, and straightforwardness earns trust.read · scan
5b.Pretended friendship as a snare or instrument
Homer, The OdysseyVol. 22
- p. 195Eumaeus, once cheated by a false traveller's tale, distrusts flattering news and offers kindness only for Zeus's sake and pity, showing betrayal's effect on trust.read · scan
- p. 249–250Penelope warns Telemachus against consorting with the wooers, who speak friendly with their lips but plot evil, contrasting false friendliness with real loyalty.read · scan
Confucius, The Sayings of ConfuciusVol. 44
- p. 17Feigning friendship while hiding ill-will is shameful; Tzu-lu would share his fine robes and carriages with friends.read · scan
Aeschylus, AgamemnonVol. 8
- p. 62–63Clytemnestra boasts of trapping an enemy who was disguised as a friend, showing friendship's pretence used for betrayal.read · scan
Aeschylus, Prometheus BoundVol. 8
- p. 177Okeanos professes friendship through kinship and offers counsel and help; Prometheus scornfully tests it, calling himself the friend of Zeus, who repaid his aid with outrage.read · scan
Euripides, HippolytusVol. 8
- p. 343–344Theseus wishes for a test to tell false hearts from true, lamenting deceit among those close to us; Hippolytus asks if a friend proved false.read · scan
Plato, PhaedoVol. 2
- p. 82–83Misanthropy arises from misplaced trust in supposed friends who prove false; disillusion in trusted friends breeds hatred of all men, a failure of judgment about human character.read · scan
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Letters of CiceroVol. 9
- p. 120Cicero resents false friends who fawn on his enemy while rejoicing at Pompey's displeasure with him, and weighs obligations to benefactors and his brother's pledge.read · scan
- p. 147–148Tax-farmers flattered by compliments and invitations each think themselves Cicero's most intimate friend; ironic view of feigned intimacy.read · scan
Virgil, The AeneidVol. 13
- p. 100Sinon's feigned lament of being abandoned by friends, plus Palamedes' kinsman and companion in war, evokes friendship's loss and loyalty.read · scan
- p. 248Amata warns that a Trojan guest once betrayed hospitality, showing friendship as a pretence, and that giving Lavinia to a stranger wrongs a friend and kinsman Turnus.read · scan
Plutarch, AlcibiadesVol. 12
- p. 129Alcibiades offers to make Tisaphernes a friend to Athens; Phrynichus, betrayed by one traitor to another, shows treachery undoing trust between allies.read · scan
Plutarch, CiceroVol. 12
- p. 255–256Cicero courts young Caesar out of hatred of Antony; Brutus reproaches him, and Caesar, having used him, later deserts him, showing opportunistic alliance and betrayal.read · scan
Marcus Aurelius, The Meditations of Marcus AureliusVol. 2
- p. 288Condemns 'wolfish' false friendship as most to be avoided; honest goodwill shows plainly in the eyes.read · scan
Saint Augustine, The Confessions of St. AugustineVol. 7
- p. 93Powerful friends are treated as useful patrons whose favour must be courted and who secure office, showing friendship instrumentalized for ambition.read · scan
Stories from the Thousand and One NightsVol. 16
- p. 437–438The robber captain feigns friendship with Ali Baba's son to gain access and murder Ali Baba; friendship is cultivated with kindnesses and dinners as treacherous pretense.read · scan
- p. 439–440The disguised robber refuses salt with his host; Marjaneh reads this as sign of enmity, showing the salt bond of hospitality as a token of loyalty and trust.read · scan
- p. 440The enemy sought the son's friendship with treacherous design; Marjaneh's watchful loyalty exposes the false friend and saves the family, rewarded with gratitude.read · scan
The Story of the Volsungs and NiblungsVol. 49
- p. 305Warning to beware the wiles of one's friends, and distrust of one whose kin one has slain; then mutual troth plighted.read · scan
- p. 339–340Grimhild urges Gudrun not to cast aside her friends for one man's sake and offers friendship as inducement, friendship as bargaining.read · scan
- p. 344–345Gudrun warns that no friendship follows Atli's bidding, doubting the invitation's good faith; Gunnar dismisses the suspicion of treachery.read · scan
Sir Thomas More, UtopiaVol. 36
- p. 157Weak, suspicious friendship with England sealed by treaty while plotting against it: false friendship as political expedience.read · scan
- p. 215Rewards for betrayal make enemy leaders suspicious and distrustful of one another, since those they most trusted are often betrayers: trust and betrayal.read · scan
William Roper, The Life of Sir Thomas MoreVol. 36
- p. 114–125Secretary's pretended friendship and comfort are met with suspicion; More answers false favour with verses on flattering fortune.read · scan
- p. 125Rich feigns friendly talk to entrap More into a treasonable answer; shows betrayal under the guise of friendship.read · scan
Miguel de Cervantes, The History of Don Quixote of the Mancha, Part IVol. 14
- p. 203–204Fernando deceives his friend Cardenio with a pretext of travel, exploiting trust and Cardenio's desire; shows friendship's manipulation.read · scan
- p. 237–238Sonnet to Amity laments that fraud and deceit wear friendship's robes, and warns that if friendship's likeness is not reclaimed from falsehood, the world falls into discord.read · scan
- p. 343Lothario feigns the grief of a friend over Camilla's body to deceive Anselmo, showing friendship counterfeited and betrayed.read · scan
- p. 405The captive claims to be a slave of Arnaute Mami because the Moor is her father's entire friend, using the friendship bond as a pretext for access.read · scan
Sir Walter Raleigh, PoemsVol. 40
- p. 205–207Bids the speaker tell friendship of its unkindness, listing friendship among corrupted worldly things.read · scan
Christopher Marlowe, Edward the SecondVol. 46
- p. 27–29Spencer seeks Gaveston's favour, calling himself his companion; friendship shown as self-interested advancement through a favourite.read · scan
- p. 75Isabella claims 'we are his friends' as a pretext; Kent's shifting loyalty and Mortimer's accusation of betrayal show false friendship and fidelity to a brother.read · scan
- p. 77–78Jailers Matrevis and Gurney call themselves 'friends' ironically; Edward mourns Gaveston and the Spencers, suffering for their sakes, showing loyalty to lost friends.read · scan
William Shakespeare, The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of DenmarkVol. 46
- p. 124–126King and Queen enlist Hamlet's boyhood companions Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to spy on him, exploiting their closeness to him; friendship made an instrument of betrayal.read · scan
- p. 131–132Hamlet greets his old school friends warmly, then invokes 'the beaten way of friendship' to ask their true purpose, suspecting their loyalty.read · scan
- p. 184Hamlet's letter summons Horatio urgently to share confidences; the King asks Laertes to accept him as friend, using friendship for manipulation.read · scan
Ben Jonson, The AlchemistVol. 47
- p. 552–553Subtle reproaches Dapper, saying he can scarcely think him a friend for drawing him into danger; friendship is feigned as a lever in the con.read · scan
John Webster, The Duchess of MalfiVol. 47
- p. 837Cardinal notes Delio has long been Antonio's approved loyal friend, so Bosola can use that friendship to trace him; loyalty exposed to exploitation.read · scan
John Milton, Poems Written at Horton, 1632-1638Vol. 4
- p. 48–49Comus plans to deceive with 'pretence of friendly ends' and glozing courtesy: false friendship as a snare for the trusting.read · scan
John Milton, Paradise LostVol. 4
- p. 261–278Eve trusts the serpent as 'friendly to Man, far from deceit', showing false friendship and misplaced trust leading to betrayal.read · scan
- p. 291The Son is called 'Man's Friend', mediator and redeemer, and the tempter's wiles are called those of 'seeming friend', a false friendship.read · scan
Molière, Tartuffe, or The HypocriteVol. 26
- p. 258–261Tartuffe invokes friendship as binding him to avoid scandal, feigning friendship's duty while exploiting Orgon's trusting devotion.read · scan
- p. 261–263Orgon prizes his 'good true friend' Tartuffe above son, wife and kindred, and bestows his estate; misplaced friendship blinding him to betrayal.read · scan
Blaise Pascal, ThoughtsVol. 48
- p. 45Human society rests on mutual flattery and deceit; few friendships would survive if each knew what his friend said in his absence.read · scan
- p. 151–152Pity for the unfortunate can be a show of friendship and kindly reputation without giving anything; friendship as feigned.read · scan
John Dryden, Dedication of the AeneisVol. 13
- p. 15–16Pompey, Crassus and Caesar's 'false friendship' is an alliance of self-interest, shown to break when rivalry returns; a counterfeit of friendship.read · scan
William Penn, More Fruits of SolitudeVol. 1
- p. 375–376Deceitful talk with the appearance of friendship, to cozen or pump each other, is loathsome to a virtuous man.read · scan
Voltaire, Letters on the EnglishVol. 34
- p. 136Wycherley's comedy contrasts a sincere, loyal friend, wrongly suspected, with a false friend in whom the captain confides; shows the trust and betrayal at stake in friendship.read · scan
Benjamin Franklin, His AutobiographyVol. 1
- p. 75Franklin presents his project as a scheme of friends to avoid envy, using friendship as a device in enlisting cooperation.read · scan
Samuel Johnson, Life of Addison, 1672-1719Vol. 27
- p. 167–168Pope courted Addison's friendship by attacking Dennis; Addison saw the selfishness of that friendship and rebuffed the officiousness.read · scan
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, A Discourse upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality among MankindVol. 34
- p. 226Social man lives in others' opinion, so honour and friendship become mere appearance and pretense; friendship counted among the counterfeited social virtues.read · scan
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Minna von Barnhelm, or The Soldier's FortuneVol. 26
- p. 346–347Riccaut boasts of a minister as his friend, and the minister's maxim that friends of friends are friends and one must help each other, as favor-seeking.read · scan
- p. 356–357Riccaut claims friendship with Tellheim, who denies it, showing false claims of friendship.read · scan
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, EgmontVol. 19
- p. 326–327Egmont feels betrayed by Ferdinand's friendly, unreserved demeanor, which lured him into trust; trust and betrayal of apparent friendship.read · scan
Richard Brinsley Sheridan, The School for ScandalVol. 18
- p. 116–118Charles is described as without friends in the house while Joseph, a hypocrite, wins Sir Peter's trust; false sentiment contrasts with true friendship.read · scan
- p. 118–119Joseph Surface distrusts Snake as unfaithful even to his own villainy; feigned brotherly sympathy and moralizing among 'friends' show hollow loyalty.read · scan
- p. 120–121Surface remarks that friends' characters are most endangered when hypocritical Candour undertakes their defence, and scandal is spread about Maria's friend Miss Prim.read · scan
- p. 134–135Mrs. Candour professes she cannot bear a friend ill spoken of or ridiculed, a duty of loyalty her own gossip ironically betrays.read · scan
- p. 170Joseph professes that a man entrusted with a friend's distresses is bound to him, yet hypocritically helps Sir Peter's trap; friendship shown as feigned loyalty and counsel.read · scan
Alessandro Manzoni, I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed)Vol. 21
- p. 45The lawyer invokes 'I speak to you as a friend' to win Renzo's trust and confidence; friendship shown as a cynical pretense of counsel.read · scan
- p. 166Gertrude's chosen godmother counterfeits long-standing friendship through flattering attentions, motivated by ambition; shows false friendship and its calculated manipulation.read · scan
- p. 242–243The landlord feigns warmth ('my dear fellow') and asks a 'favour between ourselves' to extract Renzo's name and money, showing friendliness as a false cover for betrayal.read · scan
- p. 253The notary's feigned friendliness ('What capital friends we are', 'trust one who wishes you well') shows friendship counterfeited as a pretext for manipulation.read · scan
- p. 254Narrator exposes the notary's 'disinterested advice of a friend' as a knave's pretence; Renzo sees through false friendship.read · scan
- p. 305Count and Provincial's long acquaintance shows friendship as ritual demonstrations and offers of service, used instrumentally to transact business.read · scan
- p. 306–307The Count feigns friendship ('like a friend', 'sincere friend') to manipulate the Provincial, showing counterfeit friendship as a tool of pressure.read · scan
- p. 310–311Appeals to 'old friends' settling matters privately, and demonstration of friendship for the order's sake; friendship as a cover for political bargaining.read · scan
- p. 313The tyrant takes 'subordinate friends' who acknowledge inferiority and serve him; friendship as unequal dependence, and companions who use him as their instrument.read · scan
Percy Bysshe Shelley, The CenciVol. 18
- p. 301Orsino speaks of a friend's counsel and the friend's bosom as the inmost cave of the mind, inviting confidence while hiding selfish guile: counsel betrayed.read · scan
Thomas Babington Macaulay, MachiavelliVol. 27
- p. 376–377Italian morality forgave Sforza his hollow friendship, showing friendship's betrayal treated leniently when cunning succeeds.read · scan
- p. 377–378Othello's trust in Iago's friendly professions shown as fatal credulity; betrayal of a trusting friend by a treacherous counselor.read · scan
- p. 379–380Depicts the Italian statesman's feigned cordiality: smiles and familiar caresses hide hatred, and he would stab rivals 'in a friendly embrace.' Shows betrayal through false friendship.read · scan
Ralph Waldo Emerson, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1241–1243Renounces the proud, flattering world as no friend to the speaker, contrasting worldly false regard with solitude; worldly society as unfriendly.read · scan
Charles Darwin, The Voyage of the BeagleVol. 29
- p. 109–110Rosas, like Chesterfield, assumes friends may become enemies and so places them in the front ranks: a cynical view of the fragility of alliances.read · scan
William Makepeace Thackeray, Jonathan SwiftVol. 28
- p. 8–9Asks whether one would have liked to be Swift's friend; shows his bullying, servility to patrons and treachery making him poor company, contrasted with beloved companionship of Johnson's club and Addison.read · scan
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, PoemsVol. 42
- p. 1161–1162Athole, the King's false friend, dines with him while betraying him; contrasted with the loyal knight Sir Hugh, the King's fast friend, loved for gentleness.read · scan
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