*Thoughts on Friendship*

Friendship is a pact where one balances faults and qualities. One can judge a friend, take account of what is good, neglect what is evil, and appreciate exactly his value, in abandoning one's self to an intimate, profound and charming sympathy.
*Guy de Maupassant*

Friendship is never established as an understood relation. It is a miracle which requires constant proofs. It is an exercise of the purest imagination and of the rarest faith...
The language of friendship is not words, but meanings. It is an intelligence above language ... Silence is the ambrosial night in the intercourse of Friends, in which their sincerity is recruited and takes deeper root.
*Henry David Thoreau*

There's a heap o' consolation in the handclasp of a friend;
it can wipe out desolation, an' bring heartaches to an end;
it can soothe a troubled spirit, like no magic in the land;
Heaven?
You are pretty near it - when a good friend grips you hand.
*James Hungerford*