“Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness in another.”

“Friendship, as has been said, consists in a full commitment of the will to another person with a view to that person's good.”

“Happiness is promoted by associations of persons with similar tastes and similar opinions.”

“Those were the two prerequisites, in my conception, to perfect friendship: capacity to worship and capacity to laugh. Modern life is not made for friendship: common interests are not strong enough, private interests too absorbing. In each person I catch the fleeting suggestion of something beautiful and swear eternal friendship with that.”

“It is a lovely oddity of human nature that a person is more inclined to interrupt two people in conversation than one person alone with a book.”

“Honesty is the most beautiful gift a person can give to another at the beginning of a friendship.”