Friends and Enemies

The more we love our friends, the less we flatter them; it is by excusing nothing that pure love shows itself.

        — Moliere (1622-1672)

There are only two people who can tell you the truth about yourself - an enemy who has lost his temper and a friend who loves you dearly.

        — Antisthenes, Greek philosopher of Athens, disciple of Socrates (445-365bc)

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art.... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

        — C.S. Lewis

True friends stab you in the front.

        — Oscar Wilde

Don't walk in front of me, I may not follow. Don't walk behind me, I may not lead. Walk beside me and be my friend.

        — Albert Camus

Actually, good friends tell good friends when they think they're fucking up. [...] The problem arises when the friends can't figure out which one is fucking up, and get annoyed with each other.

[http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=32966&cid=3559854]

Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.

        — Anäis Nin

Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.

        — Elbert Hubbard

We really don't have enemies. It's just that some of our best friends are trying to kill us.

        — Unknown

Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of joy you must have somebody to divide it with.

        — Mark Twain

The tender friendships one gives up, on parting, leave their bite on the heart, but also a curious feeling of a treasure somewhere buried.

        — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Southern Mail,

Loyalty to a person and whatever they say or do, that's the opposite of real loyalty, which is loyalty based on inquiry, and telling someone what you really think and feel--your best estimation of the truth instead of what they want to hear.

        — Paul O'Neill, US ex-Secretary of the Treasury

A good friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.

        — Lois Wyse

A friend can tell you things you don't want to tell yourself.

        — Frances Ward Weller

• What is best in life?
• Conan: To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and to hear the lamentation of their women.

Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much.

        — Oscar Wilde