"Silences make the real conversations between friends. Not the saying, but the never needing to say is what counts." -Margaret Lee Runbeck

"A friend hath the skill and observation of the best physician; the diligence and vigilance of the best nurse; and the tenderness and patience of the best mother." -Clarendon

"I think the hardest part of being a woman is having women friends"
"I think the hardest part of being a woman is not being able to just be friends with a man." -How to Make an American Quilt

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow. -William Shakespeare

"When two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as he wants to be seen, and each man as he really is." -Michael de Saintamo 

There are those who pass like ships in the night; Who meet for a moment, then sail out of sight; With never a backwards glance of regret folks we know briefly then quickly forget.... Then there are those friends who sail together through quiet waters and stormy weather Helping each other through joy and through strife and they are the kind that give meaning to life.
-Author unknown

"No love, no friendship can cross the path of our destiny without leaving some mark on it forever."
-Author unknown

"Oh the comfort, the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are - chaff and grain together - certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away..." -Dinah Mulock

"Piglet sidled up behind Pooh.
'Pooh,' he whispered.
'Yes, piglet?'
'Nothing,' said Piglet, taking Pooh's paw.
'I just wanted to be sure of you.' "

One can't complain. I have friends. Somebody spoke to me only yesterday. -Eeyore from Winnie-the-Pooh

A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. -Bernard Meltzer

Friendship bridges the gap between what things are and what they could be -Roger Holmes

True friendship brings sunshine to the shade, and shade to the sunshine -Thomas Burke

Friendship is a horizon--which expands whenever we approach it -E.R. Hazlip

OLD FRIENDSHIP
Beautiful and rich is an old friendship,
Grateful to the touch as ancient ivory,
Smooth as aged wine, or sheen of tapestry
Where light has lingered, intimate and long.
Full of tears and warm is an old friendship
That asks no longer deeds of gallantry,
Or any deed at all - save that the friend shall be
Alive and breathing somewhere, like a song.
-Eunice Tietjens

A blessed thing it is for any man or woman to have a friend; one human soul whom we can trust utterly; who knows the best and the worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults; who will speak the honest truth to us, while the world flatters us to our face, and laughs at us behind our back ; who will give us counsel and reproof in the day of prosperity and self-conceit; but who, again, will comfort and encourage us in the day of difficulty and sorrow, when the world leaves us alone to fight our own battle as we can. -Kingsley

"Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain quality over our minds which hardly any later friend can obtain." -Mary Shelley

"There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love." -William Hazlitt

"Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods." -Aristotle

The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed. -Carl Jung 

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies. -Aristotle 

We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses, there is at last one which makes the heart run over. -James Boswell 

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing, not curing, not healing, and face us with the reality of our powerlessness. That is the friend who cares. -Henri Nouwen