'My idea of good company, Mr Elliot, is the company of clever, well-informed people, who have a great deal of conversation; that is what I call good company.' 'You are mistaken,'said he gently,'that is not good company, that is the best.'

-Austen,Jane
  Persuasion, ch.16.

A crowd is not company, and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk but atinkling cymbal, wherethere isno love. See Bible121:9.

-Bacon, Francis,Viscount St Albans
  Essays, no.27,'Of Friendship'.

   Therefore with Angels, and Archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious Name; evermore praising thee, and saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory: Glory be to thee,O Lord most High. Amen.

-Book of Common Prayer
Holy Communion, Praise.

One evening in October, when I was one-third sober, An'taking home a'load' with manly pride; My poor feet began to stutter, so I lay down in the gutter, And a pig came up an' lay down by my side. Then we sang 'It's all fair weather when good fellowsget together,' Till a lady passing by was heard to say: 'You can tell a man who boozes by the company he chooses', And the pig got up and slowly walked away.

-Burt, Benjamin Hapgood
  'The Pig Got Up and Slowly Walked  Away'.

El pan comido y la compan‹  |¤a deshecha. With the bread eaten, the company breaks up.

-Cervantes, Miguel de
  Don Quixote, pt.2, ch.7.

I live in company with a body, a silent companion, exacting and eternal.He it iswho notesthat individuality whichistheseal oftheweakness ofourrace.Mysoul has wings, but the brutal jailer is strict.

-Delacroix, (Ferdinand Victor) Euge'  ne
  The Journal of Euge'  ne Delacroix (translated by W Pach, 1948), entry for 4  Jun.

Men with secrets tend to be drawn to each other, not becausethey wanttosharewhatthey know but because they need the company of the like-minded, the fellow- afflicted.

-DeLillo, Don
  Walter Everett,  Jr. Libra, pt.1,'17  April'.

In company with several other old ladies of both sexes.

-Dickens, CharlesJohn Huffam
^7  Little Dorrit, bk.1, ch.17.

Shall I leave all this constant company, And follow headlong, wild uncertain thee?

-Donne,John
^5  Satires, no.1.

We are all going to heaven, and Vandyke is of the company.

-Gainsborough,Thomas
  Last words (attributed), quoted in William B Boulton Thomas Gainsborough (1905), ch.9.

I, too, sing America. I am the darker brother. They send me to eat in the kitchen When company comes. But I laugh And eat well, And grow strong.

-Hughes, (James Mercer) Langston
  'I, Too', in Survey Graphic, Mar.

Tomorrow I'll sit at the table When company comes Nobody'll dare Say to me, 'Eat in the kitchen' Then.

-Hughes, (James Mercer) Langston
  'I, Too', in Survey Graphic, Mar.

Me'  re Ubu, tu es bien laide aujourd'hui. Est-ce parce que nous avons du monde? Mother Ubu, you are very ugly today. Is it because we have company?

-Jarry, Alfred
  Ubu Roi, act1, sc.1.

No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned† A man in a jail has moreroom, better food, and commonly bettercompany.

-Johnson, Samuel known as Dr Johnson
  Remark,16 Mar. Quoted in  James Boswell The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), vol.1.

We are the only company whose assets all walk out the gates at night. 562

-Mayer, Louis B(urt) originally Eliezer Mayer
Quoted in Leslie Halliwell  The Filmgoer's Book of Quotes (1973).

I think modern educational theorists are inclined to attachtoomuch importancetothenegative virtue of not interfering with children, and too little to the positive merit of enjoying their company.

-Russell, Bertrand Arthur William Russell, 3rd Earl
  In Praise of Idleness,'Education and Discipline'.

The frolicsome company had begun to practise the ancient and now forgotten pastime of HighJinks.

-Scott, Sir Walter
  Guy Mannering, ch.36.

I†am admitted into the company of paper-blurrers.

-Sidney, Sir Philip
  The Defence of Poetry.

A good many times I have been present at gatherings of people who†are thought highly educated and who have†been expressing their incredulityat the illiteracy of scientists.Once or twice I have been provoked and have asked the company how many of them could describe the Second Law of Thermodynamics. The response was cold: it was also negative.

-Snow, C(harles) P(ercy), 1st Baron
  TheTwo Cultures, Rede Lecture, ch.1.

I love good creditable acquaintance; I love to be the worst of the company.

-Swift,Jonathan
Journal to Stella,17 May.