Deep Friendship Quotes for the Friends Who Know You Best

Use these deep friendship quotes when you want to thank a deep friend, comfort one, or simply remind them what they mean to you. If your friend is going through a hard time, start with section 4; if you want to honour a lifelong friend, section 7 is the place; and if you want something to send today, section 10 is written as messages you can copy straight into a text.

Editor’s Picks

Eleven deep friendship quotes from this collection, picked for the moments when you need the right words fast. Each one is also in the numbered sections below.

1. What Makes a Friendship Deep

Not every friendship goes deep, and that is what makes the deep ones so precious. These deep friendship quotes are about the kind of bond where honesty replaces small talk and a friend knows the real you. Use them when you want to name what makes your friendship different.

1. Deep friendship is not built in a weekend. It is built in a thousand small honest moments.
2. A deep friend knows the version of you that you hide from everyone else.
3. When people are friends, they have no need of justice, but when they are just, they need friendship in addition. — Aristotle
4. You cannot rush depth. It arrives quietly, one kept promise at a time.
5. The deepest friendships are the ones where pretending is no longer necessary.
6. A shallow friend knows your schedule. A deep friend knows your fears.
7. Depth is when a friend can tell you are hurting before you say a word.
8. I hate the prostitution of the name of friendship to signify modish and worldly alliances. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
9. Real depth shows when the laughter stops and the truth stays in the room.
10. A deep friendship does not need constant proof. It needs constant honesty.
11. The friends who matter most are the ones who know your worst chapter and stay anyway.
12. Depth means your friend can disagree with you and still stand beside you.
13. Some friendships are made by nature, some by contract, some by interest, and some by souls. — Jeremy Taylor
14. A deep bond is not loud. It is the quiet certainty that someone is on your side.
15. You know a friendship is deep when silence between you feels like conversation.
16. Deep friends do not collect your good days. They carry your hard ones with you.
17. The measure of a friendship is not its length but its honesty.
18. He who does not see the whole world in his friends, does not deserve that the world should hear of him. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
19. A deep friend is the person you call when the news is too big for a text.
20. Friendship grows deep the moment you stop performing and start telling the truth.
21. Some friends know your story. Deep friends know the parts you never told.
22. Depth is a friend who remembers what you said last year and asks how it ended.
23. Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures. — Seneca the Younger
24. A deep friendship survives the seasons that end shallower ones.
25. The deepest friendships ask little and give much, without keeping score.

2. Trust You Can Lean On

Trust is the ground a deep friendship stands on. The lines in this section are for the friend you can tell anything to, the one whose word you never have to doubt. If you are looking for the right words for that friend, our best friend quotes collection has more to borrow from.

1. Trust is the floor of a deep friendship. Everything else is built on it.
2. Let us be friends, Cinna, it is I who invite you to be so. — Pierre Corneille
3. A friend you can trust with your secrets is a friend you can trust with your life.
4. Deep trust is not given in a day. It is earned in a hundred small kept promises.
5. You can tell a friend the truth and know it will be held, not used.
6. A trustworthy friend is the safest place you will ever stand.
7. Thou canst not joke an Enemy into a Friend; but thou may’st a Friend into an Enemy. — Benjamin Franklin
8. Trust is the quiet decision to let someone see you without your armor on.
9. The deepest friendships are the ones where your secrets sleep safely.
10. A friend who keeps your confidence in your absence is worth more than gold.
11. Trust grows when a friend does the right thing even when no one is watching.
12. Friends are like melons. Shall I tell you why? To find one good, you must a hundred try. — Claude Mermet
13. You do not test trust by asking for it. You test it by giving it.
14. A deep friend will tell you the hard truth before anyone else dares to.
15. Honesty is the price of depth, and deep friends pay it gladly.
16. When a friend says I will be there, and then is there, trust takes root.
17. He who advises you to be reserved to your friends wishes to betray you without witnesses. — Juan Manuel
18. A friend who never gossips about others will never gossip about you.
19. Trust is knowing your friend will defend you in rooms you never enter.
20. The strongest friendships are the ones where the truth is never punished.
21. A deep friend keeps your story safe even when the story is messy.
22. To have a great man for an intimate friend seems pleasant to those who have never tried it; those who have, fear it. — Horace
23. You can lean on a trusted friend the way a house leans on its foundation.
24. Trust is the quiet agreement that neither of you will ever use the other’s weakness.
25. A friend who tells you what you need to hear is rarer than one who tells you what you want.

3. When Words Run Out

Some friendships are deepest in the quiet moments, when no one needs to fill the silence. These lines are for the friend who understands you without a long explanation. Keep a few short friendship quotes handy too, for the days when even fewer words will do.

1. Some of the deepest conversations happen in complete silence.
2. A deep friend understands your quiet better than most people understand your words.
3. You do not always need advice. Sometimes you need someone to sit beside you.
4. Two lovely berries moulded on one stem: So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart. — William Shakespeare
5. The best friends are the ones who know when to stop talking and start listening.
6. Silence with a true friend is never awkward. It is rest.
7. A deep friend can read the pause between your sentences.
8. When words fail, a true friend simply stays.
9. You know the friendship is deep when you can say nothing and still feel heard.
10. Then came your new friend: you began to change — I saw it and grieved. — Alfred Tennyson
11. A friend who listens without fixing is worth more than a hundred advisers.
12. Sometimes the deepest comfort is a friend who asks nothing and stays.
13. Deep friendship speaks in glances, in laughter, in the space between words.
14. A true friend hears what you do not say.
15. The quietest friend in the room is often the one who understands you best.
16. Friend of my bosom, thou more than a brother, Why wert not thou born in my father’s dwelling? — Charles Lamb
17. You do not need to explain yourself to a friend who already knows.
18. A deep bond needs no constant talking. It needs constant presence.
19. The friends who sit with you in silence are the ones who love you loudest.
20. When your voice shakes, a deep friend does not look away.
21. Understanding without words is the deepest language of friendship.
22. Oh, call it by some better name, For Friendship sounds too cold. — Thomas Moore
23. A true friend knows the difference between your tired silence and your hurting silence.
24. You can be quiet with a deep friend and still be completely yourself.
25. The deepest conversations are the ones where both of you forget to check the time.

4. The Test of Hard Times

Hard times are the truest test of any friendship, and deep friends pass it without being asked. The quotes here are for the friend who stayed when life got difficult. For more on the same theme, our deep best friend quotes look at loyalty under pressure from a best friend’s side.

1. It is always better to avenge one’s friend than to mourn overmuch. — Beowulf
2. Trouble is the truest test of friendship, and deep friends pass it without being asked.
3. A deep friend does not disappear when your life gets difficult.
4. When your world tilts, a deep friend steadies you without making a speech about it.
5. The friends who stay through the storm are the ones worth keeping through the calm.
6. A deep friend shows up at the hospital, the funeral, the courtroom, the kitchen table at midnight.
7. A deep friend cannot take your grief away, but they can carry it beside you.
8. A deep friend will sit in the dark with you until you are ready for the light.
9. Be kind to my remains; and O defend, Against your judgment, your departed friend. — John Dryden
10. You learn who your deep friends are when the applause stops.
11. A fair-weather friend leaves at the first cloud. A deep friend brings an umbrella.
12. Deep friendship is proven in the waiting room, not the celebration.
13. When you lose everything, a deep friend reminds you what you still have.
14. A deep friend does not ask what happened first. They ask what you need now.
15. The rest of the crowd were friends of my fortune, not of me. — Ovid
16. The hardest days are lighter when a friend carries half the weight.
17. A deep friend will drive through the night because you called.
18. Trouble sorts your friends the way winter sorts the trees.
19. A deep friend stays when the news is bad and stays longer when it gets worse.
20. You do not need many friends in a crisis. You need one deep one.
21. ‘Twas sung, how they were lovely in their lives, And in their deaths had not divided been. — Thomas Campbell
22. A deep friend does not try to fix your pain. They sit beside it with you.
23. A friend who answers at three in the morning is a friend who knows you best.
24. Hard times strip away the shallow friends and leave the deep ones standing.
25. A deep friend is the one who shows up when showing up is inconvenient.

5. Time-Tested Friendships

A deep friendship is not made in a week. It is made in years of showing up, and these deep friendship quotes celebrate exactly that slow, steady kind of bond. They pair well with friendship day quotes when you want to mark an anniversary of the friendship itself.

1. Time does not make a friendship deep. Shared life does.
2. A deep friendship is measured in years of showing up, not days of talking.
3. The friends who last are the ones who keep choosing each other, year after year.
4. A deep bond grows the way a tree grows: slowly, quietly, and stronger every year.
5. It is a common saying that many pecks of salt must be eaten before the duties of friendship can be discharged. — Cicero
6. You cannot buy time with a friend. You can only spend it well.
7. Old friends carry your history in a way no new friend ever can.
8. A friendship that survives a decade has survived a hundred small tests.
9. Time reveals which friendships were built on rock and which on sand.
10. Years apart change nothing when the friendship was built on solid ground.
11. Before you make a friend eat a bushel of salt with him. — George Herbert
12. A deep friendship ages the way good wine ages: it only gets better.
13. The best friendships are the ones that outlast jobs, cities, and hairstyles.
14. Time apart is a test, and deep friendships pass it without studying.
15. A friend from long ago knows the person you used to be and loves the person you are.
16. Deep friendships do not fade with time. They settle into something stronger.
17. Of my friends I am the only one I have left. — Terence
18. You know a friendship is deep when ten years feel like ten minutes.
19. The friends who knew you before the success are the ones who keep you honest after it.
20. A deep friendship is a long conversation that pauses for years and never loses its place.
21. Seasons change, addresses change, but a deep friendship holds its ground.
22. The test of time is the only test a deep friendship needs to pass.
23. The poor make no new friends; But oh, they love the better still The few our Father sends. — Helen Blackwood, Baroness Dufferin
24. A friend who has known you for twenty years is a living archive of your life.
25. Deep friendships are not made in a moment. They are made in a thousand moments.

6. Soul Friends

Some friends feel like family from the first conversation, as if your souls had met before you did. This section is for those rare, kindred-spirit friendships. The inspirational friendship quotes collection has more lines in the same spirit, for the friend who lifts you up.

1. A soul friend is someone whose presence feels like coming home.
2. Some friendships feel older than the people in them, as if the souls met first.
3. As dear to me as are the ruddy drops That visit my sad heart. — William Shakespeare
4. A soul friend knows your heart the way you know your own name.
5. Deep friendship is two souls recognizing each other across a crowded room.
6. A soul friend is the family you were allowed to choose.
7. You do not find a soul friend. You recognize one.
8. A deep bond feels less like meeting someone and more like remembering them.
9. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided. — 2 Samuel 1:23
10. Soul friends do not need introductions. They need only a moment.
11. A soul friend is the person who makes your life feel larger, not smaller.
12. When two souls fit, the friendship needs no explanation.
13. A soul friend sees the person you are becoming before you see it yourself.
14. Deep friendship is the quiet knowledge that someone else carries a piece of your heart.
15. I am a companion of all them that fear thee, and of them that keep thy precepts. — Psalm 119:63
16. A soul friend is the one person who can make a strange city feel like home.
17. Some friends enter your life and rearrange the furniture of your soul.
18. A soul friend never tries to change you. They love the person you already are.
19. The deepest friendships are the ones where two people grow in the same direction without trying.
20. A soul friend is the mirror that shows you your best self.
21. There is nothing that is meritorious but virtue and friendship; and indeed friendship itself is only a part of virtue. — Alexander Pope
22. You can tell a soul friend by the way your shoulders drop when they walk in.
23. Deep friendship is the feeling that you have known someone forever, even on the first day.
24. A soul friend is the person your heart trusts before your mind has decided.
25. Soul friends are rare because souls do not open their doors to everyone.

7. Growing Old Together

The deepest friendships are the ones that last a lifetime, through every version of you. These lines are for the old friend who has known you the longest. Our short best friend quotes are a good companion piece when you want something brief for a birthday card.

1. Old friends are the only people who remember the person you used to be.
2. Friendship, like love, is but a name, Unless to one you stint the flame. — John Gay
3. Growing old with a friend is the longest conversation you will ever have.
4. A deep friendship that lasts a lifetime is the rarest treasure there is.
5. Old friends do not need new stories. The old ones still make them laugh.
6. The friends who knew you at sixteen are the ones who keep you honest at sixty.
7. A lifetime of friendship is built from a thousand ordinary days.
8. Who friendship with a knave hath made, Is judg’d a partner in the trade. — John Gay
9. A friendship that has lasted decades is the best story two people can tell.
10. You know a friendship will last when you can already picture it at eighty.
11. Deep friends grow old together the way old trees grow: side by side, roots tangled.
12. The best part of an old friendship is that the years between visits disappear in a minute.
13. Old friends have seen your worst haircuts and loved you anyway.
14. ‘Tis thus that on the choice of friends Our good or evil name depends. — John Gay
15. A deep friendship that survives decades has survived every version of you.
16. Growing old together means watching each other’s children grow and still laughing at the same jokes.
17. Old friends are the keepers of your younger self.
18. A friend from childhood is a bridge back to who you were.
19. Deep friendships do not end with age. They ripen with it.
20. Friends I have made, whom Envy must commend, But not one foe whom I would wish a friend. — Charles Churchill
21. The friends who grow old with you are the ones who never needed a reason to stay.
22. An old friend can make you feel sixteen again with a single sentence.
23. Lifetime friends are the ones who have forgiven you a hundred times and never counted.
24. Old friends are the witnesses to a life well lived.
25. A deep friendship grows old gracefully because it was never built on appearances.

8. Far Apart, Still Close

Distance cannot break a friendship that was built on truth. These lines are for the friend who lives far away but still feels close. If the miles are the hard part, our long distance best friend quotes were written for exactly that ache.

1. Distance tests a friendship the way fire tests gold.
2. A deep friend is close even when the map says otherwise.
3. You can live on different continents and still share the same heartbeat of a friendship.
4. No friend’s a friend till he shall prove a friend. — Beaumont and Fletcher
5. Far apart does not mean far away. A deep friend is never far.
6. The miles between you are nothing next to the years behind you.
7. A deep friendship does not shrink with distance. It stretches and holds.
8. You do not need to be in the same city to be in the same life.
9. A friend across the ocean can still be the first person you call.
10. Defend me from my friends; I can defend myself from my enemies. — Jean Hérault, sieur de Gourville
11. Distance is only a problem for friendships that were never deep.
12. Deep friends pick up after a year as if it were yesterday.
13. A deep friend is the person you miss in a way that proves how much they matter.
14. The ocean between two friends is smaller than the silence between strangers.
15. A deep friendship crosses time zones the way sunlight crosses a window.
16. Of two friends, one is always the slave of the other, although frequently neither acknowledges the fact to himself. — Mikhail Lermontov
17. Absence makes a deep friendship stronger because it proves the bond needs no maintenance.
18. A friend far away is still the first voice you want to hear on a hard day.
19. A deep friendship travels well because it is packed in the heart, not in a suitcase.
20. The best friendships survive moves, marriages, and time zones without a scratch.
21. A deep friend is never really gone. They live in your phone, your photos, and your habits.
22. Then come the wild weather, come sleet or come snow, We will stand by each other, however it blow. — Simon Dach
23. Distance cannot dim a friendship that was lit by years of truth.
24. You know the friendship is deep when the goodbye at the airport hurts for weeks.
25. A deep friend across the world is closer than a shallow friend across the street.

9. Choosing Your Friends Well

Deep friendship starts with choosing well, and it is worth choosing slowly. This section is about the wisdom of picking friends for character rather than convenience. When you need a lift for a friend you believe in, our encouraging quotes for a friend can help you say it.

1. There are very few honest friends — the demand is not particularly great. — Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach
2. Choose your friends the way you choose your books: slowly, and for the long term.
3. A deep friendship begins with a choice and continues with a thousand small choices.
4. The friends you choose become the mirror you see yourself in.
5. You cannot choose your family, but your friends are the family you get to choose.
6. A wise person chooses friends for character, not for convenience.
7. A man without friends is like a body without a soul. — Italian Proverb
8. The people around you shape who you become, so choose people who shape you well.
9. Deep friends are not found in crowds. They are found in quiet, honest moments.
10. You become like the people you spend time with, so spend time with deep people.
11. A false friend is worse than an open enemy, because the false one knows your soft spots.
12. The test of a friend is not what they say about you, but what they say when you are away.
13. What is thine is mine, and all mine is thine. — Plautus
14. Choose the friend who tells you the truth over the one who tells you what you want.
15. A deep friendship is worth more than a hundred shallow ones.
16. You do not need many friends. You need a few deep ones.
17. The friends worth keeping are the ones who make you want to be better.
18. A true friend will never ask you to be someone you are not.
19. Deep friends do not just cheer you on. They sharpen you for the road ahead.
20. Beware the friend who is only there for the good times. The good times end.
21. Deep friends are the ones who stay after they have seen your flaws up close.
22. The quality of your life is shaped by the quality of your friendships.
23. A friend who respects your boundaries is a friend who respects you.
24. Choose friends who celebrate your wins without a trace of envy.
25. The deepest friendships are the ones where both people are free to be themselves.

10. Deep Friendship Quotes to Send to a Friend

Some lines are meant to be sent, not just read. These deep friendship quotes are written as messages you can copy into a text or a card for the friend who has stood by you. Famous lines from writers and thinkers, collected on the Wikiquote Friendship page, sit beside them for the moments when a classic says it best. And if you want to say thank you properly, our thank you quotes will help you finish the message.

1. I am sending you this because you are the deep friend everyone hopes for.
2. Thank you for being the friend who knows me at my worst and loves me anyway.
3. You are the kind of friend I would choose again in every lifetime.
4. I do not say it enough, but you are one of the best parts of my life.
5. Thank you for every late-night talk, every honest word, every time you stayed.
6. My fair one, let us swear an eternal friendship. — Molière
7. You are the friend I call when the world feels too heavy to carry alone.
8. I am grateful for a friend who has seen all of me and never once walked away.
9. You are proof that deep friendship is real, and I am lucky to have it.
10. Thank you for being my anchor, my laughter, and my honest mirror.
11. I hope you know how much your friendship has shaped who I am.
12. You are the friend I would cross an ocean to see, and I would not think twice.
13. Thank you for the years, the laughter, the silence, and the loyalty.
14. Your friendship has made my life richer in ways I can never repay.
15. You are the deep friend I tell stories about when people ask what friendship means.
16. Thank you for never giving up on me, even when I gave up on myself.
17. You are the friend whose name makes me smile before I even pick up the phone.
18. I am sending this to the friend who has carried me through more than they know.
19. Madam, I have been looking for a person who disliked gravy all my life; let us swear eternal friendship. — Sydney Smith
20. Thank you for being the person I can call at any hour, for any reason, without apology.
21. You are the friend I want beside me in every season of life.
22. I do not need many friends. I need you, and that has always been enough.
23. Thank you for the deep friendship that has outlasted every storm we have faced.
24. You are the kind of friend who makes ordinary days feel like a gift.
25. I am lucky to have a friend whose depth matches my own.

Frequently Asked Questions About Deep Friendship Quotes

What is a deep friendship quote?

A deep friendship quote is a line about the kind of friendship built on trust, honesty and time, rather than small talk. These lines cover trust, silence, hard times, distance and lifelong bonds, so you can find one that fits the friend and the moment.

How do I use these deep friendship quotes to support a friend?

Send one in a text when your friend is having a hard day, write one in a birthday card, or read one aloud when words of your own feel too small. The quotes in section 4 are best for hard times, section 10 is written as messages you can copy straight into a text, and section 2 works when you want to tell a friend you trust them completely.

What makes a friendship deep instead of shallow?

A deep friendship is built on honesty, trust and showing up over time. Shallow friendships stay on shared activities and small talk; deep ones survive hard conversations, long silences and long absences. The common signs are a friend who tells you the truth, keeps your confidence, and stays when life gets difficult.

Can I send these quotes to a best friend?

Yes. Deep friendship quotes work for best friends too, because a best friend is usually the deepest friendship you have. If you want lines written specifically for a best friend, our deep best friend quotes collection is the closest match, and our best friend quotes collection has 250 more.

How many deep friendship quotes are in this collection?

There are 250 quotes in this collection, across ten sections of 25. Forty are real, famous lines from writers, thinkers and scripture, and the other 210 are original lines written for this collection.

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