On Friends and Friendship

Lately I've been thinking about friends, how friendships start, how to keep friends, how friendships succeed and how they fail, and how/when to let them go. I don't know about you, but I'm one of those people who when I make a friend, I generally like to keep them. Time is precious, and time spent with a friend is an investment. It might be something simple, but the fact that we allow each other into our lives says a lot about our priorities.

There's fair-weather friends and stormy-weather friends; insecure friends and clueless friends; friends for a season and friends for a lifetime. I've had and probably been all of them at one time or another.


Before I get into any of my thoughts, I thought I'd share some quotes I found about friendships:


"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant."- Socrates


"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."- Helen Keller


"Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up." - Ecclesiastes


"Every man should have a fair-sized cemetery in which to bury the faults of his friends." - Henry Brooks Adams

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.” - C.S. Lewis


"Friends always show their love. What are brothers for if not to share troubles?"- Proverbs 17:17

"Some friendships do not last, but some friends are more loyal than brothers."- Proverbs 18:24


"An honest answer is the sign of true friendship." - Proverbs 24:26


"A friend means well, even when he hurts you. But when an enemy puts his hand round your shoulder - watch out!" - Proverbs 27:6



So what is this mystery called friendship, the secret ingredient that connects people to each other? We can say we are destined to be friends with those whom we have the most in common, but I've learned that's not necessarily the case. I'll continue that thought another time!