"My friend is one who takes me..." - Quote by Henry David Thoreau
My friend is one who takes me for what I am. A stranger takes me for something else than what I am. . . . What men call social virtues, good fellowship, is commonly but the virtue of pigs in a litter which lie close together to keep each other warm. It brings men together in crowds and mobs in bar-rooms and elsewhere, but it does not deserve the name of virtue.
More by Henry David Thoreau
“Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.”
“Still we live meanly, like ants; though the fable tells us that we were long ago changed into men; like pygmies we fight with cranes; it is error upon error, and clout upon clout, and our best virtue has for its occasion a superfluous and evitable wretchedness. Our life is frittered away by detail.”
“I desire that there be as many different persons in the world as possible; I would have each one be very careful to find out and preserve his own way.”
More on Friendship
“I think one of the basic reasons men make good friends is that they can make up their minds quickly.”
“I never lost a friend I wanted to keep.”
“To communicate is our chief business; society and friendship our chief delights; and reading, not to acquire knowledge, not to earn a living, but to extend our intercourse beyond our own time and province.”