Friendship

The wise man, even if he is content with himself, nevertheless wishes to have a friend, if for nothing else, that he may exercise friendship, that so great a virtue may not lie idle—not for the purpose Epicurus mentioned in this very letter, namely, to have someone to sit by him when he is sick, to come to his aid when he is cast into chains or in want, but to have someone by whom he himself may s …

"The question now," you say, "is not whether friendship is to be sought for its own sake.

The thing you describe is a bargain, not a friendship, which looks to its own advantage and considers what it will gain.

There remains a topic most necessary of all to this discussion, concerning friendship — which, if pleasure be the highest good, you assert can have no existence at all.

But there are some Epicureans, a little more timid in the face of your reproaches, yet acute enough, who fear that, if we hold friendship to be sought for the sake of our own pleasure, the whole of friendship may seem, as it were, to limp.

In three ways, then, I see that friendship has been discussed by our school.

In the goodness and the power of my friends, he answered, and in the fact that with all their excellence they have regard for me.

Thereupon all eyes were turned toward him, and many speaking at once asked him whether he would not discover these friends to them;

What about you, Hermogenes?

There are accordingly three kinds of friendship, corresponding in number to the three lovable qualities;

The objects and the personal relationships with which friendship is concerned appear, as was said at the outset, to be the same as those which are the sphere of justice.

Similarly it is natural that the claims of justice also should increase with the nearness of the friendship, since friendship and justice exist between the same persons and are co-extensive in range.

But to me even the thorn of your words is a pleasure, kindling me to a greater longing for our friendship.

But all the same, since one cannot entrust wax to the sun, in place of the wings of Icarus I send you words, words that show forth our friendship.

For the present he is known through his father, who has won among us a great name for uprightness of life and for ability in public affairs, and who is bound to me as well in the closest friendship.

But if a man be moderate in these things, yet dishonour those near him who are called his friends, and take no care that they shall seem to all blessed and enviable, he is unwittingly a traitor to himself and to his office, making the friends he has dispirited, and ensuring that none of the rest desires his friendship, and robbing himself of the fairest and most useful of possessions — friendship.

For as many comrades as a man has won, with so many eyes he sees what he would see, with so many ears he hears what he must, and with so many minds he takes thought for his interests.

For who is readier to toil, when the time for it comes, than a friend?

In social intercourse what pleasure could you find in such a man, knowing that he prefers your sauces and your wines to your friends, and likes the women better than the company?

I am growing in goodness and I am making better friends?

my fancy, stronger even than theirs, is for good friends.

From these works have been selected the two treatises, on Old Age and on Friendship, which have proved of most permanent and widespread interest to posterity, and which give a clear impression of the way in which a high-minded Roman thought about some of the main problems of human life.

Come and dwell in this glorious house in friendship together;

for praise is the foundation of friendship, as blame is that of enmity.

and while it takes only a short time to break up the intimacies of the base, not all eternity can blot out the friendships of good men.

Be slow to give your friendship, but when you have given it, strive to make it lasting;

2 All those things which make you puffed up and exalted above human affairs, which compel you to forget your own frailty, which you guard with iron bars under arms, which you defend with your own blood, things snatched from another's blood, for the sake of which you launch fleets to stain the seas, for the sake of which you batter cities, not knowing how many weapons fortune is preparing against y …

Yet nothing will delight the mind so much as a faithful and sweet friendship.

You understand, I suppose, that he would go far less readily to those who square the accounts of friendship by their table, who reckon up the courses as so many largesses, as though they were intemperate to do another man honor.

in a plague one must take care not to sit beside bodies already seized and burning with disease, because we shall draw the danger to ourselves and suffer from the very breath of it, so in choosing the characters of our friends we shall take pains to admit those least tainted;

Hearing those well-spoken words of Sugrīva, Rāma, with a joyful heart, clasped that hand in his own hand and embraced him tightly, taking that heartfelt friendship to himself.

Then Sugrīva and Rāghava both circumambulated the blazing fire and thus entered into the state of friendship.

Whether wealthy or poor, whether in sorrow or in happiness, whether blameless or at fault — a true companion is the highest refuge.

Charayana says that citizens form friendship with washermen, barbers, cowherds, florists, druggists, betel-leaf sellers, tavern keepers, beggars, Pithamardas, Vitas and Vidushekas, as also with the wives of all these people.

These friends should possess the following qualities:

The following are the kind of friends: