45 Inspiring Friendship Quotes

Friendships are born in a million different ways, and all good friends strive to achieve the same goal: to be a source of love and support. There are many forms of friendship, some of which may vary from place to place, certain characteristics are present in many types of such bonds. Such characteristics include affection; kindness, love, virtue, sympathy, empathy, honesty, altruism, loyalty, generosity, forgiveness, mutual understanding and compassion, enjoyment of each other's company, trust, and the ability to be oneself, express one's feelings to others, and make mistakes without fear of judgment from the friend. Friendship is an essential aspect of relationship building skills.

Finding a true friend feels like a gift that keeps on giving, even when they are thousands of miles away. Through stressful classes, figuring out a career, and inevitable breakups, your best friends have been there. And yes, when you got those bangs you shouldn’t have tried in the first place, they consoled you.

Whether you’re celebrating life or happen to experience an unexpected bump, you can always rely on your friends to be there for you. A listening ear, a shoulder to cry on, or finding the silver lining in a less than ideal situation - all of it means the world to you simply knowing you have your friends supporting you every step of the way. Let yours know you love them with one of these sweet friendship quotes that perfectly describe your unique bond.

Friendship in adulthood provides companionship, affection, as well as emotional support, and contributes positively to mental well-being and improved physical health.

This is 45 thought-provoking, beautiful, sometimes poignant and sometimes funny quotes on friendship.

“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”
– Walter Winchell

“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

“I like to listen. I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen.”
– Ernest Hemingway

“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

“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.”
– David Tyson

“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

“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

“Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.”
– Thomas J. Watson

“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

“What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”
– Confucius

“Ultimately the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or in friendship, is conversation.”
– Oscar Wilde

“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

“I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”
– Plutarch

“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

“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 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

“It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche

“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

“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

“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

“One’s friends are that part of the human race with which one can be human.”
– George Santayana

“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 Mediavine

“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant.”’
– Socrates

“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

“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 F. Buscaglia

“In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.”
– Marcel Proust

“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.”
– Charles Lamb

“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

“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

“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

“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

“No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
– Alice Walker

“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.”
– Woodrow T. Wilson

“Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.”
– Ed Cunningham

“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

“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


“The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.”
– Elisabeth Foley

“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

“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

“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

“A good friend can tell you what is the matter with you in a minute. He may not seem such a good friend after telling.”
– Arthur Brisbane

“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

“A good word is an easy obligation; but not to speak ill requires only our silence; which costs us nothing.”
— John Tillotson