“I am speaking now of the highest duty we owe our friends, the noblest, the most sacred--that of keeping their own nobleness, goodness, pure and incorrupt...If we let our friend become cold and selfish and exacting without remonstrance, we are no true lover, no true friend.”

“A true friend is someone who is always there for you, with no agenda other than the friendship itself. We rely on our friends to lift us up in bad times, to keep us grounded in good times, but most importantly, to be there for us when we need nothing at all.”

“What our closest friends do for us is to teach us true selflessness. We learn that while it might be safer for them if we keep them out, true friendship means letting them in. We cannot decide for them what they are willing to suffer with us and for us. While we certainly don't want to see our friends suffer, friendship isn't about protecting each other from pain so much as it is about helping each other to become what God has called us to be.”

“Sometimes good friends become more than friends, which is normal because our friends understand us best and we are comfortable around them.”

“We need books...because we are all, in the private kingdoms of our hearts, desperate for the company of a wise, true friend.”

“Jack said, 'The only friends we don't spare--who do not escape our scrutiny--are our lovers and those who become our enemies.”