Don't flatter yourself that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. The cultivation of the friendship of a powerful man is sweet to the inexperienced; an experienced man dreads it. Reserve or censure come not near In the choice of a dog or horse, we exercise the greatest care: we inquire into its pedigree, its training and character, and yet we too often leave the selection of our friends, which is of infinitely greater importance, by whom our whole life will be more or less influenced either for good or evil,-almost to chance. Nothing in the world is more galling than a tardy friend. Our very best friends have a tincture of jealousy even in their friendship; and when they hear us praised by others, will ascribe it to sinister and interested motives if they can. In certain circumstances in life we can bear no more from a friend than to feel him beside us. Spoken consolation irritates the wound and reveals its depth. 67 Oliver Wendell Horace Percy Bysshe Shelley Lord Avebury in "The Pleasures of Life" Plautus Caleb Honoré de Balzac Edward Lucas Lord Byron William Hazlitt Knowles Brown Henry David Thoreau Proverb Lord Avebury Cicero Petrarch Proverb La Roche foucauld The art of life is to keep down acquaint- ances. one's acquaintances can be the devil. Who will debase his manly mind, There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself; we cannot force it any more than love. A judicious friend is better than a zealous one. True love never nags, it trusts. The language of friendship is not words, but meanings. It is an intelligence above language. Poverty parteth friends. Friendship does not confer any privilege to make ourselves disagreeable. When love and kindness cease all enjoyment is taken out of life. Suspicion is the bane of friendship. Let not the grass grow on the path of friendship. It is more shameful to mistrust your friends than to be deceived by them. There are hermit souls that live withdrawn There are pioneer souls that blaze their paths But let me live by the side of the road Let me live in a house by the side of the road Where the race of men go by The men who are good and the men who are bad, I would not sit in the scorner's seat Or hurl the cynic's ban Let me live in a house by the side of the road I see from my house by the side of the road The men who press with the ardor of hope, The men who are faint with the strife, But I turn not away from their smiles nor their tears, Both parts of an infinite plan Let me live in my house by the side of the road I know there are brook-gladdened meadows ahead, That the road passes on through the long after noon And stretches away to the night. And still I rejoice when the travelers rejoice Samuel Walter "The House by the Side of the Road" |