“I and me are always too deeply in conversation: how could I endure it,if there were not a friend?The friend of the hermit is always the third one: the third one is the float which prevents the conversation of the two from sinking into the depth.”

“Actually, I am asking myself if conversations with friends always feel like this--two minds bound together by their focus on the same subject.”

“My parents were my two best friends. My third best friend was an author who did not know I existed.”

“I hadn’t been in proper school in three years. My parents were my two best friends. My third best friend was an author who did not know I existed.”

“Friendship is one friend betraying another friend to a third friend. With a fond friendly smile. The greater the betrayal, the greater the intimacy - the greater the friendship.”

“One day, on tearing off some old bark, I saw two rare beetles, and seized one in each hand. Then I saw a third and new kind, which I could not bear to lose, so I popped the one which I held in my right hand into my mouth. Alas! it ejected some intensely acrid fluid, which burnt my tongue so that I was forced to spit the beetle out, which was lost, as was the third one.”