Henry David Thoreau Quotations: Friendship
I love my friends very much, but I find that it is of no use to go to see them. I hate them commonly when I am near them. They belie themselves and deny me continually.—Journal, 16 November 1851
I sometimes awake in the night and think of friendship and its possibilities, a new life and revelation to me, which perhaps I had not experienced for many months.—Journal, 13 July 1857
I wake up in the night to these higher levels of life, as to a day that begins to dawn, as if my intervening life had been a long night.—Journal, 13 July 1857
I would that I were worthy to be any man's Friend.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
If I had never thought of you as a friend, I could make much use of you as an acquaintance.—Journal, 31 January 1852
If my friend would take a quarter part the pains to show me himself that he does to show me a piece of roast beef, I should feel myself irresistibly invited.—Journal, 19 May 1856
In friendship we worship moral beauty without the formality of religion. —Journal, 1837-1847
It would give me such joy to know that a friend had come to see me and yet that pleasure I seldom if ever experience.—Journal, 23 December 1851
My friend is cold and reserved because his love for me is waxing and not waning.—Journal, 20 March 1842
My Friend is not of some other race or family of men, but flesh of my flesh, bone of my bone. He is my real brother.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
