40 Beautiful Quotes about the meaning of true friendship

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Enjoy these beautiful quotes for your friend with whom you share a bond of mutual affection, companionship, and enriching experience! Especially for those of us who work alone, meeting our friends at the end of a long day can recharge our souls and provide new perspectives.

Unfortunately, not all friendships are true. Fake and toxic friendships may leave you feeling judged, used, or insecure. Hence, we need to be able to recognise a true friend and so we can value & nurture it.

I’ve carefully handpicked the best quotes from these famous authors on the definition of true & meaningful friendship.

Quotes on What Friendship Really Means

You have a connection like no other. 
1. “Friendship is the wine of life.”
― Edward Young, British poet & dramatist

2. “Friendship… is born at the moment when one man says:  “What! You too? I thought I was the only one!”
— C.S. Lewis
3. What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”
― Aristotle

They are reliable. There is a strong mutual trust that can only come with time. I personally find this the hardest, to have a person that you can trust wholly is definitely rare and a delight!

4. “It is more shameful to distrust our friends than to be deceived by them.”
— Confucius, Chinese Philosopher

They make time for you and are there when it matters, even when things are rough.

6. “Friendship means little when it’s convenient”

– Shimazu Koji, John Wick 4

7. “The shifts of fortune test the reliability of friends.”
– Marcus Tullius Cicero

6. A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.
— Walter Winchell, American columnist

If you are facing a tough time now, don’t forget to learn about this positive affirmations for women to help you gain more courage, be reassured and feel more grounded!

They are genuinely interested in your life and will follow up with you
7. “Friendship isn’t a big thing—it’s a million little things.”

— Paulo Coelho

8. “Lovers are normally face to face, absorbed in each other; Friends, side by side, absorbed in some common interest”
— C.S. Lewis

9. “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, American lecturer and author of How to win friends and influence people

They know you on a deeper level (including all your flaws) and decide to stay.
10. A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.
— Bernard D. Meltzer, American scholar
(this one is so true and cracked me up LOL!)

11. “A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”
— William Shakespeare

You can be 100% yourself around them.
12. “No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.”
― Alice Walker, American novelist

13. They keep their promises and are consistent.
“Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant.”
– Socrates

They bring out the best in you through honesty.
14. “Don’t be afraid of enemies who attack you. Be afraid of the friends who flatter you.”
— Dale Carnegie

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

They respect your boundaries and good  values that you can look up to.
16. “When you choose your friends, don’t be short-changed by choosing personality over character.”

― Somerset Maugham, British playwright, novelist

17. “The presence of a noble nature, generous in its wishes, ardent in its charity, changes the lights for us: we begin to see things again in their larder, quieter masses, and to believe that we too can be seen and judged in the wholeness of our character.”

― George Eliot, Middlemarch

They are happy about your success
18. “Our true friends are those who are with us when good things happen. They cheer us on and are pleased by our triumphs. False friends only appear at difficult times, with their sad, supportive faces, when, in fact, our suffering is serving to console them for their miserable lives.”
— Paulo Coelho, Brazilian Novelist

Beautiful words that capture the essence of friendship

19. “A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.”
— Donna Robert

20. “Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend.”
— Bill Watterson

21. Count your age by friends, not years. Count your life by smiles, not tears.
— John Lennon

22. “I get by with a little help from my friends.”
— The Beatles

23. “Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves
— Vincent Van Gogh

24. Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil
— Baltasar Gracian

25. “We know from daily life that we exist for other people first of all, for whose smiles and well-being our own happiness  depends”
— Albert Einstein

26. “Friendship must be about something, even if it were only an enthusiasm for dominoes or white mice. Those who have nothing can share nothing; those who are going nowhere can have no fellow travellers”
— C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

Nonetheless, we must also bear in mind that not all friendship (even when its real) will last till the end of time, some get off the bus earlier than we did, here are the best tips if you are trying to heal from a friendship break.

27. There are so many men, all endless attempting to sweep me off my feet, And there is one of you, trying to make sure my feet are firm beneath me, lest I fall”
— Patrick Rothfuss, from The Wise Man’s Fear

28. The best mirror is an old friend”
— George Herbert, English Poet

Heartwarming friendship quotes about making friends

29. “In high tide or low tide, I’m gonna be your friend, I’m gonna be your friend — Bob Marley

30. “I’ll reach out my hand to you/ I’ll have faith in all you do/ Just call my name and I’ll be there.”
— Jackson 5

31. “I can fly higher than an eagle/ For you are the wind beneath my wings.”
— Bette Midler, Wind Beneath My Wings

32. “Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends”
— Epicurus, a guide to happiness

33. A single rose can be my garden; a single friend, my world”
— Leo Bascaglia

Short and funny quotes to write for your best friends forever!

Congratulations if you have that friend by your side, treasure them by all means!

34. “I knew when I met you an adventure was going to happen.”

― Winnie the Pooh

35. We are best friends. Always remember that if you fall, I will pick you up… after I am done laughing.

― Unknown

36. Friendship must be built on a solid foundation of alcohol, sarcasm, inappropriateness and shenanigans.
– Unknown

37. “The capacity for friendship is God’s way of apologising for our families.”

― Jay McInerney

38. “The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money”
— Mark Twain
(Ouch Mark Twain, good one!)

39. 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

40. Good friends move you, best friends move dead bodies with you.
― unknown

(I laughed so hard about this one!) 😂

Bonus: Best friend: the one that you can only be mad for a short period of time because you have important stuff to tell them. 😂
— unknown

Let me know in the comment below if these quotes and quick advice help you determine who’s to keep and who’s to go as your true friends!