100+ Inspirational Friend Quotes to Celebrate True Friendship

"Distance means so little, when someone means so much."

- Tom McNeal

"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

"Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation."

- Oscar Wilde

"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

"Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare — and precious as a pearl."

- Tahar Ben Jelloun

"But friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life, and thanks to a benevolent arrangement the greater part of life is sunshine."

- Thomas Jefferson

"Love is friendship set on fire."

- Jeremy Taylor

"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

"Friendship is accepting a person with all their qualities — good and bad."

- Mohanlal

"Experts on romance say for a happy marriage there has to be more than a passionate love. For a lasting union, they insist, there must be a genuine liking for each other. Which, in my book, is a good definition for friendship."

- Marilyn Monroe

"A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face."

- Maya Angelou

"Everyone you meet knows something you don’t know but need to know. Learn from them."

- C.G. Jung

"Don’t be afraid of new beginnings. Don’t shy away from new people, new energy, new surroundings. Embrace new chances at happiness."

- Billy Chapata

"Each new friendship can make you a new person, because it opens up new doors inside of you."

- Kate DiCamillo

"Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them."

- Francesco Guicciardini

"Every new friend is a new adventure… the start of more memories."

- Patrick Lindsay

"The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul."

- Shanna Rodriguez

"The kindest way of helping yourself is to find a friend."

- Ann Kaiser Stearns

"Getting to know new people and gaining new friends is one of life’s greatest pleasures. So conquer your fears and get out there."

- Tony Clark

"There are friendships imprinted in our hearts that will never be diminished by time and distance."

- Dodinsky

"No distance of place or lapse of time can lessen the friendship of those who are thoroughly persuaded of each other’s worth."

- Robert Southey

"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

"A friend can tell you things you don’t want to tell yourself."

- Frances Ward Weller

"As long as we share the same sky and breathe the same air, we’re still together."

- Donna Lynn Hope

"A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand."

- Kahlil Gibran

"Can miles truly separate you from friends…If you want to be with someone you love, aren’t you already there?"

- Richard Bach

"Friends…they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you."

- Misty Copeland

"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 healing, not curing…that is a friend who cares."

- Henri Nouwen

"Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity."

- Kahlil Gibran

"Be genuinely interested in everyone you meet and everyone you meet will be genuinely interested in you."

- Rasheed Ogunlaru

"There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met."

- Jim Henson

"A single rose can be my garden…a single friend, my world."

- Leo Buscaglia

"Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer."

- Ed Cunningham

"A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails."

- Donna Roberts

"It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter."

- Marlene Dietrich

"Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget."

- G. Randolf

"A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have."

- Irish proverb

"I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light."

- Helen Keller

"True friends are like diamonds — bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style."

- Nicole Richie

"Friends are the family you choose."

- Jess C. Scott

"A sweet friendship refreshes the soul."

- Proverbs 27:9

"The essence of true friendship is to make allowance for another’s little lapses."

- David Storey

"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

"My best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake."

- Aristotle

"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

"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world."

- Leo Buscaglia

"It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them."

- Confucius

"As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend."

- King Solomon

"The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity."

- Ulysses S. Grant

"A friend is what the heart needs all the time."

- Henry van Dyke

"A man's friendships are one of the best measures of his worth."

- Charles Darwin

"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

"The most I can do for my friend is simply be his friend."

- Henry David Thoreau

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

- Socrates

"It takes a long time to grow an old friend."

- John Leonard

"It is not so much our friends' help that helps us, as the confidence of their help."

- Epicurus

"Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends."

- Virginia Woolf

"Friends and good manners will carry you where money won't go."

- Margaret Walker

"There is no friend like an old friend who has shared our morning days, no greeting like his welcome, no homage like his praise."

- Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

"A true friend freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably."

- William Penn

"A true friend is someone who is there for you when he'd rather be anywhere else."

- Len Wein

"Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing."

- Elie Wiesel

"It's the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter."

- Marlene Dietrich

"No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow."

- Alice Walker

"Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend."

- Bill Watterson

"She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind."

- Toni Morrison

"Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer."

- Jean de La Fontaine

"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."

- Octavia E. Butler

"I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better."

- Plutarch

"Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?"

- Abraham Lincoln

"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 healing, not curing... that is a friend who cares."

- Henri Nouwen

"A friend to all is a friend to none."

- Aristotle

"The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship."

- William Blake

"Friendship... is not something you learn in school. But if you haven't learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven't learned anything."

- Muhammad Ali

"A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

- Walter Winchell

"In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures. For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."

- Kahlil Gibran

"One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood."

- Lucius Annaeus Seneca

"Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy into a friend."

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

"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

"My friends are my estate."

- Emily Dickinson

"If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart. I’ll stay there forever."

- Winnie the Pooh

"Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together."

- Woodrow Wilson

"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

"The love that comes from friendship is the underlying facet of a happy life."

- Chelsea Handler

"Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief."

- Marcus Tullius Cicero

"True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost."

- Charles Caleb Colton

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship."

- Thomas Aquinas

"Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world."

- John Evelyn

"A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you."

- Elbert Hubbard

"Friendship is the sweetest influence."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Friends are the siblings God never gave us."

- Mencius

"A friend is a gift you give yourself."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"True friendship is a plant of slow growth."

- George Washington

"We are all travelers in the wilderness of this world, and the best we can find in our travels is an honest friend."

- Robert Louis Stevenson

"Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

- Marcel Proust

"There are no strangers here; Only friends you haven't yet met."

- William Butler Yeats

"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

"Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies."

- Aristotle

"Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends."

- H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives."

- Euripides

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival."

- C. S. Lewis

"True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island... to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing."

- Baltasar Gracian

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

- Anais Nin

"Never explain - your friends do not need it and your enemies will not believe you anyway."

- Elbert Hubbard

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."

- Henry Ford

"I have learned that to be with those I like is enough."

- Walt Whitman

"Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence."

- George Washington

"There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you."

- Paramahansa Yogananda

"If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus one day, so I never have to live without you."

- Winnie the Pooh

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart."

- Elisabeth Foley

"And what is a friend? More than a father, more than a brother: a traveling companion, with him, you can conquer the impossible, even if you must lose it later. Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing."

- Elie Wiesel

"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

"Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is no 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."

- Octavia Butler

"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

"A good friend is a connection to life—a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world."

- Lois Wyse

"Don’t make friends who you are comfortable with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up."

- Thomas J. Watson

"Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone."

- Vincent van Gogh

"Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend."

- Bill Watterson

"A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself."

- Heidi Wills

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

- Aristotle

"Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud."

- Maya Angelou

"'Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his."

- Benjamin Franklin

"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

"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

"The truth of the matter is, no matter how lonely you might feel, you’re never going through anything alone. You can choose your family."

- Jennifer Lopez

"I get by with a little help from my friends."

- Ice Cube

"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

"A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down."

- Arnold H. Glasgow

"If you are ever lucky enough to find a weirdo, never let them go."

- Matthew Gray Gubler

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

- Bernard Meltzer

"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

"'Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected."

- Charles Lamb

"Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival."

- C.S. Lewis

"I can’t believe I’ve known you for 20 years and you’re still my favorite person to talk to."

- Jess Day

"Friendships between women, as many women will tell you, are built of a thousand small kindnesses…swapped back and forth and over again."

- Michelle Obama

"The only way to have a friend is to be one."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"There is no happiness like that of being loved by your fellow creatures, and feeling that your presence is an addition to their comfort."

- Charlotte Brontë

"When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest things we know."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Words are easy, like the wind; faithful friends are hard to find."

- William Shakespeare

"If you have one true friend you have more than your share."

- Thomas Fuller

"There is some self-interest behind every friendship. There is no friendship without self-interests. This is a bitter truth."

- Chanakya

"A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship."

- John D. Rockefeller

"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit."

- Aristotle

"True friendship resists time, distance, and silence."

- Isabel Allende

"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same."

- Elbert Hubbard

"That’s when I realized what a true friend was. Someone who would always love you—the imperfect you, the confused you, the wrong you—because that is what people are supposed to do."

- R. J. L.

"Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom."

- Marcel Proust

"You don’t have to have anything in common with people you’ve known since you were five. With old friends, you’ve got your whole life in common."

- Lyle Lovett

"Make new friends, but keep the old; Those are silver, these are gold."

- Joseph Parry

"Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled."

- Ally Condie

"Women’s friendships are like a renewable source of power."

- Jane Fonda

"We didn’t talk about anything heavy or light. We were just there together, and that was enough."

- Stephen Chbosky

"Share your smile with the world. It’s a symbol of friendship and peace."

- Christie Brinkley

"A single rose can be my garden, a single friend my world."

- Leo Buscaglia

"The best mirror is a true friend."

- George Herbert

"The language of friendship is not words but meanings."

- Henry David Thoreau

"Friendship is the purest form of love."

- Osho

"True friends are like diamonds—bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style."

- Nicole Richie

"The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it."

- Hubert H. Humphrey

"The best mirror is an old friend."

- George Herbert

"A good friend is like a four-leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have."

- Irish proverb

"Friendship is a sheltering tree."

- Samuel Taylor Coleridge

"No road is long with good company."

- Turkish Proverb

"Friendship is love without wings."

- George Gordon Byron

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."

- Jim Morrison

"Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read."

- Francis Bacon

"We didn’t realize we were making memories. We just knew we were having fun."

- Winnie the Pooh

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

- Helen Keller

"A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself."

- Josh Billings

"Dogs are better than human beings because they know but do not tell."

- Emily Dickinson

"There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature."

- Jane Austen

"A true friend is the greatest of all blessings."

- François de La Rochefoucauld

"Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them."

- Anna Taylor

"True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart."

- Helen Keller

"Friends are the family we choose for ourselves."

- Edna Buchanan

"True friends are always together in spirit."

"When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand."

"No friendship is an accident."

"Of all possessions a friend is the most precious."

"True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable."

"Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil."

"Awards become corroded. Friends gather no dust."

"Best friends make the bad times good and the good times unforgettable."

"Friends make the world a funnier, kinder, and happier place."

"A best friend is like a rainbow after the storm."

"Kind words and good friends make the world a better place."

"Friendship means being there for each other, no matter what."

"Real friends stick together through every storm."

"Loyalty and friendship go hand in hand."

"A friend is someone who lifts you up when you fall."

"The greatest gift you can give your friend is your time and love."

"True friendship is built on honesty, kindness, and respect."

"Friends help you find the sunshine on cloudy days."

"A best friend is like a guardian angel who makes everything better."

"Friendship is a beautiful journey that lasts a lifetime."

"Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there."

- Unknown

"A friend is someone who makes you smile even when you’re feeling down."

"Friends make the world a brighter place."

"Happiness is having a best friend by your side."

"A day spent with a friend is always a day well spent."

"Kindness makes a friend; a smile keeps a friend."

"Friendship is the golden thread that ties our hearts together."

"A friend is someone who sees the best in you even when you don’t see it yourself."

"Friendship is the secret ingredient to a happy life."

"A true friend is someone who thinks you’re amazing even when you don’t feel that way."

"Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest, it’s about who walked into your life and never left your side."

"Friends make bad days good and good days even better."

"Friendship is not about things, it’s about moments."

"Friendship grows when we share laughter and kindness."

"Good friends help you find important things when you’ve lost them… your smile, your hope, and your courage."

"A friend is someone who knows all your stories and still sticks around to hear new ones."

"Friends don’t let friends do silly things alone."

"Good friends bring out the best in you. Best friends bring out the crazy in you!"

"Life’s too short to have boring friends."

"A true friend is one who thinks you’re funny even when your jokes are bad."

"I was an innocent kid… then my best friend came along!"

"Friendship is when you walk into someone’s house and their WiFi connects automatically."

"A good friend knows how you take your coffee. A great friend adds extra marshmallows to your hot chocolate."

"A best friend is someone who lets you have the last slice of pizza."

"You don’t have to be crazy to be my friend. I’ll train you!"

"You are never alone when you have a friend."

"The best way to make a friend is to be one."

"There’s always room for one more friend in your heart."

"Friendship is the bridge between lonely and happy."

"Every child deserves a friend who makes them feel special."

"A friend is someone who reaches for your hand but touches your heart."

"Friends listen with their hearts."

"If you have one true friend, you have more than enough."

"It only takes one friend to make a difference in your life."

"Friendship is the sunshine that brightens even the cloudiest day."

"A friend is like a star—you may not always see them, but you know they are always there."

"A friend’s love is a forever kind of love."

"The best friends are those who lift you up when others bring you down."

"Friends are angels who lift our feet when our own wings forget how to fly."

"Friendship means always having someone to share your cookies with."

"A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and can sing it back to you when you forget the words."

"Friendship is built on kindness, trust, and a lot of laughter."

"Friends pick us up when we fall, and if they can’t, they lie down and listen with us."

"A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in your garden."

"Friendship is not about being inseparable but about being separated and knowing nothing will change."

"Friends are like stars. You may not always see them, but you know they’re always there."

"Friends are the chocolate chips in the cookie of life."

"Friends make the world beautiful."

"A good friend is a treasure that lasts forever."

"A friend is someone who makes your problems smaller and your laughter louder."

"A friend is someone who gives you a reason to smile every day."

"A true friend accepts who you are but also helps you become who you should be."

"Friends don’t count faults, they multiply happiness."

"A friend’s hug is worth more than a thousand words."

"A friend in need is a friend indeed."

"True friends hold your hand and never let go."

"A great friend is someone who makes your problems their problems, just so you don’t have to go through them alone."

"Friendship isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being there when it matters most."

"A friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out."

"Best friends are like stars. They shine the brightest when the night is the darkest."

"A friend believes in you even when you stop believing in yourself."

"The best friendships are built on love, trust, and a little bit of silliness."

"You don’t need a lot of friends, just a few really good ones."

"A friend’s kindness can change your whole day."

"Friends are the people who make ordinary moments extraordinary."

"Good friends make great adventures."

"Friendship is the joy of sharing laughter and dreams."

"A real friend is one who joins in your adventures, no matter how crazy they seem."

"True friends turn ordinary days into amazing memories."

"Having a best friend is like having a built-in adventure buddy."

"The best memories are made with friends."