198 Friendship Quote of the Day: Best True Friend Quotes

Whether you want to thank a friend, celebrate a lasting bond, or simply reflect on what makes friendship special, you will find a quote below that speaks to you. Each friendship quote of the day is paired with its author, so you can share it with confidence.

Ancient Wisdom on Friendship

1. “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.” — Aristotle
2. “My friends, there are no friends.” — Aristotle
3. “Friendship is a thing most necessary to life, since without friends no one would choose to live.” — Aristotle
4. “It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.” — Epicurus
5. “Friendship is the only thing in the world concerning the usefulness of which all mankind are agreed.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
6. “He is not a friend who will not share my fortunes to the end.” — Menander
7. “The friendship of one wise man is better than that of all fools.” — Democritus
8. “Friendship is equality.” — Pythagoras
9. “Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life.” — Pythagoras
10. “If a traveler does not meet with one who is his better, or his equal, let him firmly keep to his solitary journey; there is no companionship with a fool.” — Buddha
11. “Nothing is so dangerous as an ignorant friend; a wise enemy is to be preferred to a foolish friend.” — Jean de La Fontaine
12. “Adversity tests the sincerity of friends.” — Aesop
13. “In time of trouble, a friend is known.” — Latin proverb
14. “A thousand friends are few, one enemy is many.” — Turkish proverb

The Bible on Friendship I

1. “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends.” — The Bible
2. “Wounds from a friend can be trusted.” — The Bible
3. “The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.” — The Bible
4. “I grieve for you, Jonathan my brother; you were very dear to me. Your love for me was wonderful, more wonderful than that of women.” — The Bible
5. “You are my friends if you do what I command.” — The Bible
6. “I no longer call you servants… Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.” — The Bible
7. “The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” — The Bible
8. “Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?” — The Bible
9. “This is my beloved, this is my friend.” — The Bible
10. “A gossip separates close friends.” — The Bible
11. “Bad company corrupts good character.” — The Bible
12. “Walk with the wise and become wise.” — The Bible
13. “The righteous choose their friends carefully.” — The Bible
14. “Seldom set foot in your neighbor’s house — too much of you, and they will hate you.” — The Bible
15. “Carry each other’s burdens.” — The Bible

The Bible on Friendship II

1. “Encourage one another and build each other up.” — The Bible
2. “Spur one another on toward love and good deeds.” — The Bible
3. “My intercessor is my friend.” — The Bible
4. “Abraham believed God… and he was called God’s friend.” — The Bible
5. “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep.” — The Bible
6. “A friend of tax collectors and sinners.” — The Bible
7. “Peace to you. The friends here send their greetings. Greet the friends there by name.” — The Bible
8. “Better is open rebuke than hidden love.” — The Bible
9. “Like cold water to a weary soul is good news from a distant land.” — The Bible
10. “Like a broken tooth or a lame foot is reliance on the unfaithful in a time of trouble.” — The Bible
11. “Many claim to have unfailing love, but a faithful person who can find?” — The Bible
12. “Wealth attracts many friends, but even the closest friend of the poor person deserts them.” — The Bible
13. “Many curry favor with a ruler, and everyone is the friend of one who gives gifts.” — The Bible
14. “The poor are shunned even by their neighbors, but the rich have many friends.” — The Bible

American Thinkers on Friendship

1. “I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship, three for society.” — Henry David Thoreau
2. “The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when one asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.” — Henry David Thoreau
3. “Go often to the house of thy friend, for weeds choke the unused path.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
4. “If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life, he will soon find himself left alone.” — Samuel Johnson
5. “A man, sir, should keep his friendship in constant repair.” — Samuel Johnson
6. “Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.” — Benjamin Franklin
7. “If you have one true friend, you have more than your share.” — Thomas Fuller
8. “Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.” — George Washington
9. “Friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.” — George Washington
10. “A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of friends.” — George Washington
11. “A friend in power is a friend lost.” — Henry Adams
12. “One friend in a lifetime is much; two are many; three are hardly possible.” — Henry Adams
13. “The best way to keep your friends is not to give them away.” — Wilson Mizner
14. “One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.” — George Santayana

British Wit on Friendship

1. “Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.” — Oscar Wilde
2. “I don’t want to go to heaven. None of my friends are there.” — Attributed to Oscar Wilde
3. “What men have called friendship is only a social arrangement, a mutual adjustment of interests.” — François de La Rochefoucauld
4. “A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart.” — Francis Bacon
5. “Friendship: a ship big enough to carry two in fair weather, but only one in foul.” — Ambrose Bierce
6. “Acquaintance: a person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.” — Ambrose Bierce
7. “A man is known by the company he keeps.” — English proverb
8. “Better an open enemy than a false friend.” — German proverb
9. “The best of friends must part.” — English proverb
10. “Short visits make long friends.” — English proverb
11. “A hedge between keeps friendship green.” — English proverb
12. “The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship.” — William Blake
13. “Opposition is true friendship.” — William Blake
14. “A quarrel between friends, when made up, adds a new tie to friendship.” — Saint Francis de Sales
15. “If thou didst ever hold me in thy heart, absent thee from felicity awhile, and in this harsh world draw thy breath in pain, to tell my story.” — William Shakespeare

Poets on Friendship

1. “The dearest ones of time, the strongest friends of the soul — BOOKS.” — Emily Dickinson
2. “Stay is a charming word in a friend’s vocabulary.” — Louisa May Alcott
3. “Sweet is the memory of distant friends!” — John Greenleaf Whittier
4. “Few delights can equal the mere presence of one whom we trust utterly.” — George MacDonald
5. “To be trusted is a greater compliment than being loved.” — George MacDonald
6. “Friendship is one of the sweetest joys of life.” — Charles Spurgeon
7. “Friends are the flowers in the garden of life.” — Unknown
8. “Plant a seed of friendship; reap a bouquet of happiness.” — Lois L. Kaufman
9. “Friendship doubles our joy and divides our grief.” — Swedish proverb
10. “A friend’s eye is a good mirror.” — Irish proverb
11. “A small house will hold a hundred friends.” — African proverb
12. “A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in your garden.” — Unknown
13. “Friends are kisses blown to us by angels.” — Unknown
14. “Friendship is the comfort of knowing that even when you feel alone, you aren’t.” — Unknown
15. “Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.” — Virginia Woolf

Winnie the Pooh & Modern Voices

1. “A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.” — A.A. Milne
2. “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.” — A.A. Milne
3. “Piglet sidled up to Pooh from behind. Pooh? he whispered. Yes, Piglet? Nothing, said Piglet, taking Pooh’s paw, I just wanted to be sure of you.” — A.A. Milne
4. “Some people care too much. I think it’s called love.” — A.A. Milne
5. “We’ll be friends forever, won’t we, Pooh? asked Piglet. Even longer, Pooh answered.” — A.A. Milne
6. “A friend is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you.” — John O’Donohue
7. “The person who loves their dream of community will destroy community, but the person who loves those around them will create community.” — Dietrich Bonhoeffer
8. “Friendship is the purest love.” — Osho
9. “The real test of friendship is can you literally do nothing with the other person?” — Eugene Kennedy
10. “The most valuable gift you can receive is an honest friend.” — Stephen Richards
11. “The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.” — Morrie Schwartz
12. “Constant kindness can accomplish much. As the sun makes ice melt, kindness causes misunderstanding, mistrust, and hostility to evaporate.” — Albert Schweitzer
13. “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.” — Albert Schweitzer
14. “Just as the wave cannot exist for itself, but is ever a part of the heaving surface of the ocean, so must I never live my life for itself, but always in the experience which is going on around me.” — Albert Schweitzer

Deep Thinkers on Friendship

1. “Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow-travellers.” — C.S. Lewis
2. “Friendship exhibits a glorious nearness by resemblance to Heaven itself where the very multitude of the blessed (which no man can number) increases the fruition which each has of God.” — C.S. Lewis
3. “In a perfect Friendship this Appreciative love is, I think, often so great and so firmly based that each member of the circle feels, in his secret heart, humbled before the rest.” — C.S. Lewis
4. “We picture lovers face to face but Friends side by side; their eyes look ahead.” — C.S. Lewis
5. “Your friend is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.” — Kahlil Gibran
6. “Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.” — Thomas Aquinas
7. “Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives and remembering what one receives.” — Alexandre Dumas
8. “A friend is one who knows us, but loves us anyway.” — Fr. Jerome Cummings
9. “Two may talk together under the same roof for many years, yet never really meet; and two others at first speech are old friends.” — Mary Catherwood
10. “Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of one another.” — Eustace Budgell
11. “What is a friend? I will tell you: it is a person with whom you dare to be yourself.” — Frank Crane
12. “My friend is he who will tell me my faults in private.” — Solomon Ibn Gabirol
13. “A friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us.” — Lydia Maria Child
14. “A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your success.” — Doug Larson

Friendship in Film & Song

1. “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.” — Casablanca
2. “You were my brother, Anakin. I loved you.” — Star Wars
3. “Fish are friends, not food.” — Finding Nemo
4. “I would have gone with you to the end, into the very fires of Mordor.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
5. “My friends, you bow to no one.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
6. “Never thought I’d die fighting side by side with an Elf.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
7. “What about side by side with a friend?” — J.R.R. Tolkien
8. “Aye. I could do that.” — J.R.R. Tolkien
9. “Help will always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.” — J.K. Rowling
10. “Count on me like one, two, three, I’ll be there.” — Bruno Mars
11. “That’s what friends are for.” — Dionne Warwick
12. “Lean on me, when you’re not strong.” — Bill Withers
13. “You’ve got a friend.” — Carole King
14. “Bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.” — Simon & Garfunkel

Funny Friendship Quotes

1. “A good friend will help you move. A best friend will help you move a body.” — Unknown
2. “Friends don’t let friends do stupid things… alone.” — Unknown
3. “The best kind of friend is the one you could sit on a porch with, never saying a word, and walk away feeling like that was the best conversation you’ve had.” — Unknown
4. “True friends don’t judge each other. They judge other people together.” — Unknown
5. “Friends buy you food. Best friends eat your food.” — Unknown
6. “Best friends: they know how crazy you are and still choose to be seen with you in public.” — Unknown
7. “A good friend knows all your stories. A best friend helped you write them.” — Unknown
8. “Friends are the bacon bits in the salad bowl of life.” — Unknown
9. “Real friends don’t get offended when you insult them. They smile and call you something even more offensive.” — Unknown
10. “I love that our effortless friendship fits perfectly with my laziness.” — Unknown
11. “We are best friends. Always remember that if you fall, I will pick you up… after I finish laughing.” — Unknown
12. “A friend is someone who will bail you out of jail. A best friend is the one sitting next to you saying, that was awesome.” — Unknown
13. “A friend is a person who goes around saying nice things about you behind your back.” — Unknown
14. “The best vitamin for making friends: B1.” — Unknown

True Friends Stick Around

1. “A friend who understands your tears is much more valuable than a lot of friends who only know your smile.” — Unknown
2. “Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.” — Ed Cunningham
3. “A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.” — Unknown
4. “If you go looking for a friend, you’re going to find they’re very scarce. If you go out to be a friend, you’ll find them everywhere.” — Zig Ziglar
5. “Friendship is the only flower that blooms in all seasons.” — Unknown
6. “Make new friends, but keep the old; those are silver, these are gold.” — Unknown
7. “A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself.” — Unknown
8. “A friend is someone who reaches for your hand but touches your heart.” — Unknown
9. “Friends are like walls. Sometimes you lean on them, and sometimes it’s good just knowing they are there.” — Unknown
10. “A true friend is someone who never gets tired of listening to your pointless dramas over and over again.” — Unknown
11. “Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.” — Richard Bach
12. “A friend is someone who makes you laugh even when you think you’ll never smile again.” — Unknown
13. “Good times and crazy friends make the best memories.” — Unknown
14. “A best friend is someone who loves you when you forget to love yourself.” — Unknown

Friendship That Lasts

1. “A true friend accepts who you are, but also helps you become who you should be.” — Unknown
2. “In the cookie of life, friends are the chocolate chips.” — Unknown
3. “A true friend is someone who sees the pain in your eyes while everyone else believes the smile on your face.” — Unknown
4. “Good friends are hard to find, harder to leave, and impossible to forget.” — Unknown
5. “Best friends are the people in your life who make you laugh louder, smile brighter, and live better.” — Unknown
6. “Friends make the good times better and the hard times easier.” — Unknown
7. “A day spent with friends is always a day well spent.” — Unknown
8. “Happiness is meeting an old friend after a long time and feeling like nothing has changed.” — Unknown
9. “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.” — Unknown
10. “Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying but the never needing to say is what counts.” — Margaret Lee Runbeck
11. “Friendship is a wildly underrated medication.” — Anna Deavere Smith
12. “Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go.” — Gloria Naylor
13. “When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.” — E.W. Howe
14. “The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away.” — Barbara Kingsolver

Wisdom from Around the World

1. “A man must eat a peck of salt with his friend before he knows him.” — Miguel de Cervantes
2. “Tell me thy company, and I’ll tell thee what thou art.” — Miguel de Cervantes
3. “Love is blind; friendship closes its eyes.” — Friedrich Nietzsche
4. “Only connect!” — E.M. Forster
5. “If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.” — E.M. Forster
6. “I look only to the good qualities of men.” — Mahatma Gandhi
7. “It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion.” — Mahatma Gandhi
8. “We may have our private opinions but why should they be a bar to the meeting of hearts?” — Mahatma Gandhi
9. “If you look for the bad in people expecting to find it, you surely will.” — Abraham Lincoln
10. “With malice toward none, with charity for all.” — Abraham Lincoln
11. “Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.” — Edna Buchanan
12. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.” — Martin Luther King Jr.
13. “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” — Attributed to Maya Angelou
14. “As you grow older, you will discover that you have two hands: one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.” — Audrey Hepburn

Modern Friendship Wisdom

1. “There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.” — Attributed to Jim Henson
2. “It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.” — Marlene Dietrich
3. “A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself.” — Heidi Wills
4. “Lovers have a right to betray you. Friends don’t.” — Judy Holliday
5. “I have always held firmly to the thought that each one of us can do a little to bring some portion of misery to an end.” — Albert Schweitzer
6. “It’s you I like.” — Fred Rogers
7. “Listening is where love begins: listening to ourselves and then to our neighbors.” — Fred Rogers
8. “The greatest thing we can do is to help somebody know that they’re loved and capable of loving.” — Fred Rogers
9. “Mutual caring relationships require kindness and patience, tolerance, optimism, joy in the other’s achievements, confidence in oneself, and the ability to give without undue thought of gain.” — Fred Rogers
10. “In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.” — Fred Rogers
11. “A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.” — Elbert Hubbard
12. “Friendship, like credit, is highest where it is not used.” — Elbert Hubbard
13. “We are never really happy until we try to brighten the lives of others.” — Helen Keller

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a good friendship quote of the day?

A good friendship quote of the day captures something true about friends — loyalty, laughter, trust, or support. The best ones are short enough to remember and meaningful enough to share, like the 198 quotes collected above.

How can I use a friendship quote of the day?

Share it in a morning text, post it on social media, write it in a card, or simply reflect on it yourself. A daily friendship quote is a small way to appreciate the people who matter most.

Who said the most famous friendship quotes?

Some of the most quoted voices on friendship include Aristotle, Cicero, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Kahlil Gibran, C.S. Lewis, and A.A. Milne — all featured in this collection with their best-known lines.

Can I share these friendship quotes every day?

Yes. With 198 quotes, you have more than six months of daily friendship quotes. Pick one each morning that fits your mood, and send it to a friend who needs it.

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Learn more about the psychology and history of friendship from Wikipedia.