Henry David Thoreau Quotations: Friendship
A Friend is one who incessantly pays us the compliment of expecting from us all the virtues, and who can appreciate them in us.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend.—Journal, 19 February 1857
Ah, that l have known! How hard it is to remember what is most memorable! We remember how we itched, not how our hearts beat.—Journal, 11 June 1851
All a man's strength and all his weakness go to make up the authority of any particular opinion which he may utter. He is strong or weak with all his strength and weakness combined. If he is your friend, you may have to consider that he loves you, but perchance he also loves gingerbread.—Journal, 16 February 1854
All romance is grounded on friendship.—Journal, 18 February 1840
All that has been said of friendship is like botany to flowers.—Journal, 1842-1844
At death our friends and relations either draw nearer to us and are found out, or depart further from us and are forgotten. Friends are as often brought nearer together as separated by death.—Journal, 24 December 1850
Even the death of Friends will inspire us as much as their lives. They will leave consolation to the mourners, as the rich leave money to defray the expenses of their funerals, and their memories will be incrusted over with sublime and pleasing thoughts, as monuments of other men are overgrown with moss; for our Friends have no place in the graveyard.—A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers
Fatal is the discovery that our friend is fallible—that he has prejudices. He is then only prejudiced in our favor.—Journal, 15 February 1851
Friendship is the fruit which the year should bear; it lends its fragrance to flowers, and it is in vain if we get only a large crop of apples without it.—Journal, 13 July 1857
