Quotes for "Texas Friendship Day" from Great Thinkers: Discussion Topic Ideas for that special day on Sunday, August 2, 2009

The Texas House of Representatives is inviting all Texans to reflect on the role of personal friendships in their own life.

That invitation from our state government has come through a unanimous voice vote of the Texas House in 2009 that's designated Sunday, August 2, 2009, as "Texas Friendship Day" throughout our entire state.

That "Texas Friendship Day" was designated by House Resolution 3132---a people-friendly resolution that was wisely authored by State Representative Dawnna Dukes of Austin.

Official information about the "Texas Friendship Day" resolution (H.R. 3132) that was approved by the Texas House of Representatives on the final day of the regular session in 2009, can be found at either or both of the following links:

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/tlodocs/81R/billtext/html/HR03132F.htm

http://www.capitol.state.tx.us/BillLookup/Text.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=HR3132

Among the many wise observations about personal friendships that I hope will be discussed throughout Texas on Sunday, August 2, 2009, are the following quotations found in the 1958 reference book "The Home Book of Quotations, 9th Edition" (a book compiled by Burton Stevenson and published by Dodd, Mead & Company of New York City, New York):

----"Fate makes relatives, but choice makes friends." (Le sort fait les parents, le choix fait les amis.)
By Delile, in "Pitie."


---"A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere."
By Ralph Waldo Emerson, in 'Essays, First Series: Friendship."

---"A faithful friend is the medicine of life."
From "Apocrypha: Ecclesiasticus", vi, 16.

---"It is better to have one friend of great value than many friends who are good for nothing."
By Anarcharsis, as quoted in Laertius, "Anarcharsis.' Sec. 105.

---"A friend to all is a friend to none."
By Aristotle, as quoted in Laertius, "Aristotle," Sec. 21.

----"The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it."
By Ralph Waldo Emerson, in "Society and Solitude: Domestic Life."

---"The only way to have a friend is to be one."
By Ralph Waldo Emerson, in "Essays, First Series: Friendship."

----"Be a friend to thyself, and others will be so too."
By Thomas Fuller, in "Gnomologia", No. 847.

---"When a friend asks there is no to-morrow." By George Herbert, in "Jacula Prudenium."

----"Be friends with the friendly, and visit him who visits you." By Hesiod, in "Works and Days", 1. 353.

---"Thou wert my guide, philosopher, and friend."
By Pope, in "Essay on Man," Epis. iv. 1. 390.

---"Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing."
By Benjamin Franklin, "Poor Richard."

---"The friends of my friends are my friends." (Les amis de mes amis sont mes amis.) Author unknown. A French proverb.

---"A good man is the best friend, and therefore soonest to be chosen, longer to be retained; and indeed, never to be parted with."
By Jeremy Taylor, in "A Discourse of the Nature, Measures, and Offices of Friendship."

---"Friends are an aid to the young, to guard them from error; to the elderly, to attend to their wants and to supplement their failing power of action; to those in the prime of life, to assist them to noble deeds." By Aristotle, in "Nicomachean Ethics", Bk. viii, sec. 1.

---"No receipt openeth the heart but a true friend."
By Francis Bacon, in "Essays: Of Friendship."

---"Of all the means to insure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the most important is the acquisition of friends."
By Epicurus, in "Sovran Maxims", No. 27.

---"A friend in the market is better than money in the chest."
By Thomas Fuller, in "Gnomologia," No. 119.

---"A true friend is the greatest of all blessings, and the one which we take least thought to acquire. (Un veritable ami est le plus grand de tous les biens et celui de tous q'on songe le moins a acquerir.)
By La Rochefoucauld, in "Maximes Posthumes," No. 544.

---"A constant friend is a thing rare and hard to find."
By Plutarch, in "Morals: On Abundance of Friends."

---"It is better to make one's friendships at home." By Solon, in "Plutarch, 'Lives: Solon," Sec. 5.

---"'Tis something to be willing to commend;
But my best praise is, that I am your friend."
By Thomas Southerne, "To Mr. Congreve."

---"A man cannot be said to succeed in this life who does not satisfy one friend." By Thoreau, in "Winter: Journal," 19 Feb. 1857.

---"Friends should be preferred to kings."
By Voltaire, in "Letter to Frederich, Crown Prince of Prussia," 26 Aug. 1736.

---"He who has much in common with his fellowmen will have much in common with a friend."
By Seneca, in "Epistuloe ad Lucilium." Epis. xlviii, 3.

---"Friends---those relatives that one makes for one's self." ("Les amis---ces parents que l'on set fait soi-meme.") By Deschamps, "L'Ami."

---"'Tis thus that on the choice of friends
Our good or evil name depends." By John Gay, "Fables: Old Woman and Her Cats."

---"Choose thy friends like thy books, few but choice." By James Howell, "Proverbs," 1659.

---"Friends are like melons. Shall I tell you why?
To find one good, you must a hundred try." By Claude Mermet, "Epigram."

---"Choose for your friend him that is wise and good, secret and just, ingenious and honest, and in those things which have a latitude, use your own liberty." By Jeremy Taylor, "Discourse of the Nature, Measures, and Offices of Friendship."

----"Best friend, my well-spring in the wilderness!"
By George Eliot, "Spanish Gypsy," Bk. iii, 1, 486.

---"Friend more divine than all divinities."
By George Eliot, "The Spanish Gypsy," Bk. iv, 1. 8.

---"A day for toil, an hour for sport,
But for a friend is life too short."
By Emerson, "Conduct of Life: Considerations by the Way."

---"This is the comfort of friends, that though they may be said to die, yet their friendship and society are, in the best sense, ever present, because immortal."
By William Penn, "Fruites of Solitude."

---"Nothing but heaven itself is better than a friend who is really a friend."
By Plautus, "Bacchides," I. 385. (Act iii, sc. 2.)

---"They are rich who have true friends."
By Thomas Fuller, "Gnomologia," No. 4957.

---"It is strange that a man can always tell you how many sheep he has, but he cannot tell you how many friends he has, so slight is the value he puts upon them."
By Socrates. (Diogenes Laertius, "Socrates." Sec. 13.)

---"The best elixir is a friend."By William Somerville, "The Hip."

---"Nothing can be purchased which is better than a firm friend." ("Amico firmo nihil emi melius potest.")
By Tacitus, "Annals." Bk. i, sec. 12.

----"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."
By Thoreau, in "Letter to Mrs. E. Castleton," 22 May, 1843.

---"A good friend never offends."By James Howell, "Proverbs," 23; 1659.

---"He is a true friend that doth thee good."
By Rivers, "Dictes and Sayings," 57. (1477).

---"There is nothing more annoying than a tardy friend." ("Tardo amico nihil est quidquam inaequius.")
By Plautus, "Panulus," 1. 504. (Act iii, sc. 1)