Friendship quotes are a fantastic way to show you just how special your true friends are to you in life. Let these cool quotes about friendship and best friends make you want to reach out and remind yours just how much they mean to you.
What does friendship really mean?
Why are we drawn to certain people and not others?
Specifically, what is the difference between the people who will be our friends for life, and those who will pass through our lives for a reason or a season?
Hopefully, these quotes about friends can give you some inspiration about the people you surround yourself with and why.
Below is our collection of inspirational, wise, and warm best friends quotes, friendship sayings, and friendship proverbs, collected from a variety of sources over the years.
If you want perspective on the difference between those friends who are real and who aren’t, be sure to check out our collection of funny friendship quotes. We also have a handpicked selection of birthday captions as well as quotes about communication to help you develop stronger and healthier relationships.
Friendship quotes about distance, life and time
1. “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
2. “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson
3. “There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.” – Jim Henson
4. “One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention.” – Clifton Fadiman
5. “Friendship is delicate as a glass, once broken it can be fixed but there will always be cracks.” — Waqar Ahmed
6. “When you stop expecting people to be perfect, you can like them for who they are.” – Donald Miller
7. “A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence; which costs us nothing.” — John Tillotson
8. “Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”―Elie Wiesel
9. “Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.” – Washington Irving
10. “A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud. I am arrived at last in the presence of a man so real and equal, that I may drop even those undermost garments of dissimulation, courtesy, and second thought, which men never put off, and may deal with him with the simplicity and wholeness with which one chemical atom meets another.”– Ralph Waldo Emerson
Friendship quotes about life
Also see this collection of wise fake people quotes.
11. “No friendship is an accident.” ―O. Henry, Heart of the West
12. “Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.” ― Socrates
13. “A single rose can be my garden… a single friend, my world.” – Leo Buscaglia
14. “Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations. Don’t over-analyze your relationships. Stop playing games. A growing relationship can only be nurtured by genuineness.” – Leo Buscaglia
15. “Only a true friend would be that truly honest.” — Shrek
16. “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” – Anais Nin
17. “A good friend can tell you what the matter with you is in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling.” – Arthur Brisbane
18. “For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.” — Audrey Hepburn
19. “True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.” – David Tyson
20. “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” – Abraham Lincoln
Friendship quotes about distance
21. “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” — Helen Keller
22. “True friends are like diamonds — bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style.” ― Nicole Richie
23. “Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.” – Thomas J. Watson
24. “Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.” – Charles Lamb
25. “A friend to all is a friend to none.” ― Aristotle
26. “If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.”– Maxwell Maltz
27. “Do not keep on with a mockery of friendship after the substance is gone — but part, while you can part friends. Bury the carcass of friendship: it is not worth embalming.”– William Hazlitt
28. “One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.”– George Santayana
29. “Some people go to priests. Others to poetry. I to my friends.”—Virginia Woolfe
Have you seen these powerful brotherhood quotes on the beauty of family and friendship?
Friendship quotes about change
30. “The tender friendships one gives up, on parting, leave their bite on the heart, but also a curious feeling of a treasure somewhere buried.”– Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
31. “Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant.”’ – Socrates
32. “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
33. “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”— Dale Carnegie
34. “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”– Marcel Proust
35. “When a woman becomes her own best friend, life is easier.”—Diane von Furstenburg
36. “A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.”– Bernard Meltzer
37. “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”— Oprah Winfrey
38. “Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.”– Ally Condie
39. “I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”– Ernest Hemingway (see all quotes from Ernest Hemingway)
Friendship quotes about love
40. “Whenever you’re in conflict with someone, there is one factor that can make the difference between damaging your relationship and deepening it. That factor is attitude.”– William James
41. “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”―Muhammad Ali
42. “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12.”—Stand by Me
43. “A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.”– Unknown
44. “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
45. “Ooh you’re the best friend that I ever had
I’ve been with you such a long time
You’re my sunshine and I want you to know
That my feelings are true
I really love you
Oh you’re my best friend”
—Queen
46. “The greatest compliment that was ever paid me was when someone asked me what I thought, and attended to my answer.”— Henry David Thoreau
47. “There’s one sad truth in life I’ve found
While journeying east and west –
The only folks we really wound
Are those we love the best.
We flatter those we scarcely know,
We please the fleeting guest,
And deal full many a thoughtless blow
To those who love us best.”
– Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Friendship quotes about time
48. “If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together… there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart… I’ll always be with you.”– Winnie the Pooh (see more quotes by Winnie the Pooh)
49. “If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus 1 day, so I never have to live without you.”– Winnie the Pooh
50. “It is not so much our friends’ help that helps us, as the confidence of their help.”– Epicurus
51. “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
52. “True friendship is never serene.”—Marquise de Sevigne
53. “How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live ’em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give ’em.”– Shel Silverstein
54. “In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”– Martin Luther King, Jr.
55. “There’s not a word yet, for old friends who’ve just met.”―Jim Henson, “I’m goingto Go Back There Someday”
56. “Many a person has held close, throughout their entire lives, two friends that always remained strange to one another, because one of them attracted by virtue of similarity, the other by difference.”– Emil Ludwig
57. “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.”– Elisabeth Foley
Friend quotes on learning and love
58. “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”– Muhammad Ali
59. “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”– Walter Winchell
60. “Someone to tell it to is one of the fundamental needs of human beings.”— Miles Franklin
61. “Dear George: Remember no man is a failure who has friends.”—It’s a Wonderful Life
62. “I get by with a little help from my friends.”—The Beatles
63. “Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.”– Oscar Wilde
64. “You can always tell a real friend: when you’ve made a fool of yourself he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job.”– Laurence J. Peter
65. “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”—Oprah Winfrey
66. “People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges.”— Joseph F. Newton Men
67. “Some of the biggest challenges in relationships come from the fact that most people enter a relationship in order to get something: they’re trying to find someone who’s going to make them feel good. In reality, the only way a relationship will last is if you see your relationship as a place that you go to give, and not a place that you go to take.”— Anthony Robbins
Insprirational Friendship quotes about love
68. “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”– Friedrich Nietzsche
69. “You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing.”—E.B. White Charlotte’s Web
70. “There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.”– Diana Cortes
71. “Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.”―Oscar Wilde
72. “A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself — and especially to feel, or not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at any moment is fine with them. That’s what real love amounts to – letting a person be what he really is.”―Jim Morrison
73. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”– Confucius
74. “Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great.”– Mark Twain
75. “There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.”―Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
76. “Friendship is like a glass ornament, once it is broken it can rarely be put back together exactly the same way.”– Charles Kingsley
77. “Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success.”– Oscar Wilde
78. “A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when they’re not so good, and sympathizes with your problems when they’re not so bad.”– Arnold H. Glasgow
79. “A friend who understands your tears is much more valuable than a lot of friends who only know your smile.”—Anonymous
Friendship quotes about change
80. “Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.”– Gloria Naylor
81. “There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”―Linda Grayson
82. “An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.”—Buddha
83. “A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.”– Arnold H. Glasgow
84. “Flatter me, and I may not believe you. Criticize me, and I may not like you. Ignore me, and I may not forgive you. Encourage me, and I will not forget you. Love me and I may be forced to love you.”– William Arthur Ward
85. “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit.”―Aristotle
86. “A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.”– Donna Roberts
87. “Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.”– Ed Cunningham
88. “The real test of friendship is can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple?”– Eugene Kennedy
Friendship quotes about love
89. “We’ll be friend ’til we’re old and senile. … Then we’ll be new friends!”—Anonymous
90. “It is the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.”– Marlene Dietrich
91. “Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”—Albert Camus
92. “Friends should be like books, few, but hand-selected.”―C.J. Langenhoven
93. “I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”– Plutarch
94. “No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”– Alice Walker
95. “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.”—Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
96. “There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. “– Linda Grayson
97. “Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”– Woodrow T. Wilson
98. “In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.”– Albert Schweitzer
99. “A strong friendship doesn’t need daily conversation or being together. As long as the relationship lives in the heart, true friends never part.”—Anonymous
100. “The best mirror is an old friend.”―George Herbert
Beautiful quotes about friendship
101. “Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life–and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next.” ― Dean Koontz
102. “We should meet in another life, we should meet in air, me and you.”
― Sylvia Plath
103. “There is no exercise better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up.” ― John Holmes
104. “She is a friend of my mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order.” ― Toni Morrison
105. “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” ― Henry David Thoreau
106. “Time doesn’t take away from friendship, nor does separation.” ― Tennessee Williams
107. “A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.”
― Jim Morrison
108. “If you care about somebody, you should want them to be happy. Even if you wind up being left out.” ― Stephen Chbosky
109. “A faithful friend is a strong defense;
And he that hath found him hath found a treasure.” ― Louisa May Alcott
110. “Two things you will never have to chase: True friends & true love.”
― Mandy Hale
Friends quotes that will make your day
111. “My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.” – Henry Ford
112. “The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.” – Hubert H. Humphrey
113. “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
114. “One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca
115. “Friends are the siblings God never gave us.” – Mencius
116. “There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” – Thomas Aquinas
117. “A true friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else.” – Len Wein
118. “Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship.” – Epicurus
119. “Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.” – Euripides
120. “True friendship ought never to conceal what it thinks.” – St. Jerome
Friend quotes to inspire and motivate you
121. “A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.” – Elbert Hubbard
122. “A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in your garden.” – Unknown
123. “A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have.” – Irish Proverb
124. “The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend.” – Henry David Thoreau
125. “Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
126. “Friendship is one mind in two bodies.” – Mencius
127. “All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon the sand.” – Ella Wheeler Wilcox
128. “Every friendship goes through ups and downs. Dysfunctional patterns set in; external situations cause internal friction; you grow apart and then bounce back together.” – Mariella Frostrup
129. “There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love.” – William Hazlitt
130. “Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.” – Khalil Gibran
Friendship quotes that will make you smile
131. “Friendship is selfless love, care, respect, and honor not a profitable opportunity.”― Santosh Kalwar
132. “One’s life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, and compassion.”― Simone de Beauvoir
133. “Real friendship or love is not manufactured or achieved by an act of will or intention. Friendship is always an act of recognition.”― John O’Donohue
134. “Friends are honest with each other. Even if the truth hurts.”― Sarah Dessen
135. “Without friends, no one would want to live, even if he had all other goods.”― Aristotle
136. “Friendships take minutes to make, moments to break, years to repair.”― Pierce Brown
137. “.. a friend is someone who inspires, who challenges, who sends you in search of some truer sense of yourself..”― Steve Lopez
138. “The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.”― Abraham Lincoln
139. “People will walk in and walk out of your life, but the one whose footstep made a long lasting impression is the one you should never allow to walk out.”― Michael Bassey Johnson
140. “Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other’s little failings.”― Jean de La Bruyère
141. “The world is not a pleasant place to be without someone to hold and be held by.”― Nikki Giovanni
142. “The only true test of friendship is the time your friend spends on you.”― John Marsden
143. “There can be no friendship without confidence, and no confidence without integrity.”― Samuel Johnson
144. “A friend can tell you things you don’t want to tell yourself.”― Frances Ward Weller
145. “Friends… they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.”― Henry David Thoreau
Short and sweet friendship quotes
146. “I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.” – Charles R. Swindoll
147. “One friend with whom you have a lot in common is better than three with whom you struggle to find things to talk about.” – Mindy Kaling
148. “Things are never quite as scary when you have a best friend.”
– Bill Watterson
149. “Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.” – Sarah Desse
150. “The only good thing about times of adversity is that you realize who your real friends and fans are – and the rest go away – which in my mind is an OK thing.” – Pete Wentz
151. “If you have two friends in your lifetime, you’re lucky. If you have one good friend, you’re more than lucky.” – S.E. Hinton
152. “Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.” – Aristotle
153. “Fate chooses your relations, you choose your friends.” – Jacques Delille
154. “I don’t know what I would have done so many times in my life if I hadn’t had my girlfriends.” – Reese Witherspoon
155. “Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship.”
– Dorothy Parker
Best friends forever quotes
156. “One of the tasks of true friendship is to listen compassionately and creatively to the hidden silences. Often secrets are not revealed in words, they lie concealed in the silence between the words or in the depth of what is unsayable between two people.” – John O’Donohue
157. “It’s the friends you can call up at 4am that matter.” – Marlene Dietrich
158. “A friend is one of the nicest things you can have, and one of the best things you can be.” – Douglas Pagels
159. “Only a true best friend can protect you from your immortal enemies.”
– Richelle Mea
160. “Where there are friends, there is wealth.” – Titus Maccius Plautus
161. “It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
162. “In a friend you find a second self.” – Isabelle Norton
163. “A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself.” – Heidi Wills
164. “Some souls just understand each other upon meeting.” – N. R. Hart
165. “True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.” – Charles Caleb Colton
Other true friendship quotes and sayings
166. “‘We’ll be friends forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet. ‘Even longer,’ Pooh answered.” — A.A. Milne, “Winnie The Pooh”
167. “A friend is a person who knows all about you-and still likes you.” – Unknown
168. “Talking to your best friend is sometimes all the therapy you need.” — Unknown
169. “I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and new.” – Unknown
170. “You are my best friend, my human diary and my other half. You mean the world to me and I love you.” — Unknown
171. “In a letter to a friend the thought is often unimportant, and the feeling, if it be only a desire to entertain him, everything.” — Unknown
172. “Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them.” — Anna Taylor
173. “Forsake not an old friend, for a new one does not compare with him.” — Unknown
174. “Having a soulmate is not always about love. You can find your soulmate in a friendship too.” — Unknown
175. “The only service a friend can really render is to keep up your courage by holding up to you a mirror in which you can see a noble image of yourself.” — Unknown
Which of these best friendship quotes was your favorite?
Friends are important to us in a lot of ways. They increase our sense of belonging and purpose and help boost our self-confidence as well.
A good friend will also increase your happiness and help you deal with the stress that comes from the ups and downs of life.
I hope these quotes about friendship gave you some inspiration and insight into the people that you surround yourself with, and the reasons that they are so important to have in your life. Let them be special and let them be worthwhile.
Which friendship quote was your favorite? What other quotes about friendship would you add to the list? Let us know in the comment section below.
