William Shakespeare on Friendship
1564–1616 England
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17 quotes
The amity that wisdom knits not, folly may easily untie.
Troilus and Cressida (1602)
I would be friends with you and have your love.
Two lovely berries moulded on one stem:
So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart.
For who not needs shall never lack a friend,
And who in want a hollow friend doth try,
Directly seasons him his enemy.
A friend should bear his friend's infirmities,
But Brutus makes mine greater than they are.
Julius Cæsar (1599)
To wail friends lost
Is not by much so wholesome — profitable,
As to rejoice at friends but newly found.
As dear to me as are the ruddy drops
That visit my sad heart.
Julius Cæsar (1599)
For by these
Shall I try friends: you shall perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes; I am wealthy in my friends.
I am not of that feather to shake off
My friend when he must need me.
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatch'd, unfledg'd comrade.
Call you that backing of your friends? A plague upon such backing! give me them that will face me.
When did friendship take
A breed for barren metal of his friend?
Out upon this half-fac'd fellowship!
Friendship is constant in all other things,
Save in the office and affairs of love:
Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself,
And trust no agent.
Where you are liberal of your loves and counsels
Be sure you be not loose; for those you make friends
And give your hearts to, when they once perceive
The least rub in your fortunes, fall away
Like water from ye, never found again
But where they mean to sink ye.
Henry VIII (1613)
We still have slept together,
Rose at an instant, learn'd, play'd, eat together;
And wheresoe'er we went, like Juno's swans,
Still we went coupled and inseparable.
Words are easy, like the wind;
Faithful friends are hard to find.
Attributed