Friendship, like everything in this globalized life, has expanded in the era of the social network Facebook, but in social practice we know. Without resorting to modern science, that true friends, unlike digital ones, can be counted on the fingers of one hand. Friendship is the family we choose, unlike the caste imposed by blood ties.
Friendship is more difficult and rarer than love, and that’s why it must be saved by any means, says Alberto Moravia (1907-1990), while for the French chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), true friends have to get angry from time to time.
The truth is that a friend must be, in essence, unconditional. There’s a reason why the American essayist Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) confessed: “A friend is one who knows all about you and still loves you.”
For the English writer William Shakespeare (1564-1616), “the friends you have and whose friendship you have already tested / Hook them to your soul with hooks of steel,” that is, we must keep them in our select club.
Friends cannot be just for sharing happy moments, and on this point, the great Indian philosopher and writer Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) said: “True friendship is like phosphorescence; it shines best when all has gone dark.”
On the other hand, true friends have a duty to warn us when we see dangers. Regarding this, the French poet Alfred de Musset (1810-1857) commented: “The trouble with a friend is that he tells us unpleasant things to our fase. The enemy says them behind our backs, and since we don’t notice, nothing happens.
Friendship has always been selective, and for that reason, the Spanish writer Pío Baroja (1872-1956) argued: “Only fools have many friends. The greatest number of friends marks the maximum degree on the dynamometer of stupidity.” One friend in life is too many. Two are too many. Three are impossible, warned the American writer and historian Henry Adams (1838-1918).
Regarding living friendship intensely, the Lebanese essayist, novelist, and poet Khalil Gibran (1883-1931) said: “Do not seek a friend to kill time, but seek him with time to live.” A loyal friend laughs at your jokes, even if they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems, even if they’re not so serious, argued Arnold H. Glasow.
However, a false friend is like the shadow that follows us while the sun shines, declared the Italian writer Carlo Dossi (1849-1910). A friend is a person with whom you can think aloud, concluded the American poet and thinker Emerson (1803-1882).
For Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), American statesman and scientist, a father is a treasure, a brother is a comfort: a friend is both.
Friendship is everything. Friendship is worth more than talent. It is worth more than government. Friendship is worth almost as much as family, said the American writer Mario Puzo (1920-1999).
Friends often become thieves in our time, the Greek philosopher Plato (427 BC-347 BC) remarked, long ago in human history. Friends are that part of the human race with whom one can be human, declared the Spanish philosopher and writer George Santayana (1863-1952).
One of the joys of friendship is knowing who to trust, said the Italian poet and writer Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873).
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that pity is more intelligent than hatred, that mercy is preferable even to justice itself, that if one goes through the world with a friendly eye, one makes good friends, endorsed Philip Gibbs.
For the Greek philosopher Socrates, a friend should be like money: before one needs it, one knows its value. For the French writer Jean de la Bruyere (1645-1696), “friendship cannot go very far when neither side is willing to forgive the other’s small faults.”
For the loving French writer and playwright Jules Renard (1864-1910), “between a man and a woman, friendship is only a gateway that leads to love.”
Friends should be sought like good books. Happiness lies not in many or very curious ones. But in few, good, and well-known ones, said the Spanish novelist Mateo Alemán (1547-1613).
The greatness of the definition of friendship was expressed by the Greek philosopher Aristotle when he poetically concluded: “Friendship is one soul dwelling in two bodies; one heart dwelling in two souls.”
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