Friendship quotes are a great way to celebrate the non-family members who mean the most to you. Your friends have been with you through everything. Your first high school sweetheart, your first breakup, your first job interview jitters – they’ve seen it all! You can’t imagine where you would be without them because they’ve always supported you (even during your embarrassing boy band phases in middle school).
International Friendship Day
International Friendship Day is celebrated on either the first Sunday of August or the last day of July. In 2011, the United Nations declared July 30th as the official International Friendship Day although some countries continue to celebrate on the first Sunday of August.
The holiday originated in the 1930s. Hallmark founder Joyce Hall proposed a day to celebrate all forms of friendship. Over the decades the holiday gained international popularity and is celebrated in many countries from India to Spain to the United States. Winnie the Pooh has been named the official friendship ambassador by the UN.
Friendship Quotes
You’re here looking for some inspiration for the card on that flower bouquet or a greeting card for your BFF, right? Don’t worry, we’ve got your back.
Light-Hearted Friendship Quotes
“You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie the Pooh
“Acquaintance, n.: A person whom we know well enough to borrow from, but not well enough to lend to.” ― Ambrose Bierce
“We’ll be Friends Forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet. Even longer,’ Pooh answered.” Winnie-the-Pooh” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
“How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give ’em.” ― Shel Silverstein
“What’s friendship’s realest measure? I’ll tell you. The amount of precious time you’ll squander on someone else’s calamities and fuck-ups.” ― Richard Ford
“People leave imprints on our lives, shaping who we become in much the same way that a symbol is pressed into the page of a book to tell you who it comes from. Dogs, however, leave paw prints on our lives and our souls, which are as unique as fingerprints in every way.” ― Ashly Lorenzana
“It takes a long time to grow an old friend.” ― John Leonard
“I don’t want to be your friend, baby. I am your friend.” ― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
“A lunch without friends is a lunch that’s too long.” ― Vendela Vida, We Run the Tides
“An old friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a dead body.” ― Jim Hayes
“There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.” ― Sylvia Plath
“Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.” ― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
“As much as a BFF can make you go WTF, there’s no denying we’d be a little less rich without them.” — Gossip Girl
“When you’re in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, ‘Damn, that was fun.’” — Groucho Marx
“One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives.” — Euripides
“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.” – Ernest Hemingway
“There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.” — Jim Henson
“The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.” — Mark Twain
“A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in your garden.” — Anonymous
“So I guess you could say Neel owes me a few favors, except that so many favors have passed between us now that they are no longer distinguishable as individual acts, just a bright haze of loyalty. Our friendship is a nebula.” ― Robin Sloan, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore
“Some guys step on a rake in the dark, and get mad and go punch somebody. Others step on a rake in the dark and fall down laughing at themselves. I know which kind of guy I’d rather be. So do my friends.” ― Spider Robinson, Callahan’s Crosstime Saloon
“Be a friend to thyself, and others will be so too.” ― Thomas Fuller
“Friendship is a sheltering tree.” ― Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“The worst part of success is trying to find someone who is happy for you.” ― Bette Midler
“Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend.” — Bill Watterson, Calvin and Hobbes
“My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.” — Henry Ford
“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“Friendship can’t end just because you change your life.” — Cristiano Ronaldo
“Fame is the scentless sunflower, with gaudy crown of gold; But friendship is the rose, with sweets in every fold.” — Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
“As the audience, I always love to get to a point where, surprisingly, I find myself in a secret friendship allegiance with the characters that are unexpected.” — Franka Potente
“You know a real friend? Someone you know will look after your cat after you are gone.” ― William S. Burroughs
Thoughtful Quotes for Good Friends
“Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed. When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frostwork but the most solid things we know.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.” ― Helen Keller
“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead Walk beside me… just be my friend” ― Albert Camus
“Friends… they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.” ― Henry David Thoreau
“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche
“Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’ ‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.” ― E.B. White
“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
“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
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” — Walter Winchell
“Words are easy, like the wind; Faithful friends are hard to find.” ― William Shakespeare
“Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.” — Marcus Tullius Cicero
“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.” — Anonymous
“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
“Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.” — Thomas Aquinas
“Of all the things that are beyond my power, I value nothing more highly than to be allowed the honor of entering into bonds of friendship with people who sincerely love truth. For, of things beyond our power, I believe there is nothing in the world which we can love with tranquility except such men.” ― Baruch Spinoza
“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
“The last time I checked, the only difference between my gay friends and I is who we choose to love. I’m not sure how that warrants a loss of rights, but it needs to stop. Whatever happened to liberty and justice for all?” — P!nk
“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 Butler
“Women’s friendships are like a renewable source of power.” — Jane Fonda
“I’ve been embraced by a new community. That’s what happens when you’re finally honest about who you are; you find others like you.” — Chaz Bono
“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
“The glory of friendship is not the outstretched hand, not the kindly smile, nor the joy of companionship; it is the spiritual inspiration that comes to one when you discover that someone else believes in you and is willing to trust you with a friendship.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
“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
“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.” – Confucius
“When you have a good friend that really cares for you and tries to stick in there with you, you treat them like nothing. Learn to be a good friend because one day you’re gonna look up and say I lost a good friend. Learn how to be respectful to your friends, don’t just start arguments with them and don’t tell them the reason, always remember your friends will be there quicker than your family. Learn to remember you got great friends, don’t forget that and they will always care for you no matter what. Always remember to smile and look up at what you got in life.” ― Marilyn Monroe
“Trust no friend without faults, and love a woman, but no angel.” ― Doris Lessing
“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.” ― Jim Morrison
“I dislike the phrase ‘Internet friends,’ because it implies that people you know online aren’t really your friends, that somehow the friendship is less real or meaningful to you because it happens through Skype or text messages. The measure of a friendship is not its physicality but its significance.” ― John Green
“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
“Friendship is something in the soul. It is a thing one feels. It is not a return for something.” ― Graham Greene
“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
“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
“We should indeed keep calm in the face of difference, and live our lives in a state of inclusion and wonder at the diversity of humanity.” — George Takei
“Friendship is a serious affection; the most sublime of all affections, because it is founded on principle, and cemented by time.” — Mary Wollstonecraft
“Friendship is the purest love. It is the highest form of Love where nothing is asked for, no condition, where one simply enjoys giving.” — Rajneesh
“Friendship is a mysterious and ocean-bottom thing. Who can know the outer ranges of it? Perhaps no human being has ever explored its limits.” — Zora Neale Hurston
“Just as the dawn is the forerunner of the arising of the sun, so true friendship is the forerunner of the arising of the noble eightfold path.” — Gautama Buddha
“There is no better friendship booster than the ability to listen. The ability to show genuine interest in others is an admirable quality of a true friend.” — Phil Callaway
New Friendship Quotes
“A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.” ― Maya Angelou
“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
“Friendship- my definition- is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don’t have trust, the friendship will crumble.” ― Stieg Larsson
“The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul.” ― Shanna Rodriguez
“Friendship at first sight, like love at first sight, is said to be the only truth.” ― Herman Melville
“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.” — Ray Bradbury
“With every true friendship, we build more firmly the foundations on which the peace of the whole world rests.” — Mahatma Gandhi
“The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul.” — Shanna Rodriguez
“Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.” ― Socrates
“My old grandmother always used to say, Summer friends will melt away like summer snows, but winter friends are friends forever.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Dance with Dragons
“Each new friendship can make you a new person, because it opens up new doors inside of you.” – Kate DiCamillo
“I don’t suppose you have many friends. Neither do I. I don’t trust people who say they have a lot of friends. It’s a sure sign that they don’t really know anyone.” ― Carlos Ruiz Zafón, The Angel’s Game
“New friends can often have a better time together than old friends.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald
“What drew me towards team sport were the camaraderie and friendship. The chance to celebrate victory and success with a group of other people is something I have enjoyed doing.” ― Rahul David
“Each new friendship can make you a new person, because it opens up new doors inside of you.” — Kate DiCamillo
“Everyone you meet knows something you don’t know but need to know. Learn from them.” ― C.G. Jung
“You can’t build anything with a flimsy foundation. Friendship is the foundation.” ― Hill Harper
“Friendship first, competition second.” ― Yao Ming
“Avoid those who seek friends in order to maintain a certain social status or to open doors they would not otherwise be able to approach.” ― Paulo Coelho
“Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.” ― Samuel Butler
“Some people will hear you louder in silence. Those are your tribe – they’ll get you through the tough days and give you something to laugh about on the ride.” ― Nikki Rowe
“I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man’s milk and restorative cordial.” ― Thomas Jefferson
“You meet people who forget you. You forget people you meet. But sometimes you meet those people you can’t forget. Those are your friends.” ― Anonymous
Deep Friendship Quotes
“Under every friendship there is a difficult sentence that must be said, in order that the friendship can be survived.” ― Zadie Smith, The Autograph Man
“I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.” ― Plutarch
“A genuine enemy is more useful than a fake friend.” ― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
“Friendship of the wise is good; a wise enemy is better than a foolish friend.” ― Rumi
“Friends are the siblings God never gave us.” ― Mencius
“Friends tell each other what nobody else is willing to tell you.” ― Nikki Sixx
“Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.” ― John Lennon
“It’s not right for one friend to do all the giving and the other to do all the taking: that’s not read friendship.” ― Haruki Murakami
“Friends are a weird thing. It seems like they know all about you, but then they don’t understand you at all.” ― Natsuo Kirino, Real World
“We are all good friends. Friendship is what endures. Shared ideals, respect for the whole character of a human being.” ― E. L. Doctorow
“To make a point of declaring friendship is to cheapen it.” ― Hunter S. Thompson
“Those truly linked don’t need correspondence. When they meet again after many years apart, Their friendship is as true as ever.” ― Ming-Dao Deng
“In the world of relationships, possibly the most complicated, uncommon, hard to find, hard to keep and most rewarding has got to be friendship.” ― Lauren Bacall
“We invest less in our friendships and expect more of friends than any other relationship.” ― Mariella Frostrup
“A friendship where you’re always trying to be considerate of the other person, always worrying about what they think, always responding to every single text, always seeking their approval and then finally connecting with them, isn’t friendship at all.” ― Wataru Watari
“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
“Today I know this: when it comes time to take stock, the most painful wound is that of broken friendships; and there is nothing more foolish than to sacrifice a friendship to politics.” ― Milan Kundera, Encounter
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