The world's best moment is a calm hour passed In listening to a friend who can talk well.

-Abu'l-'Ala¤   Al-Ma'arri
c.1000  Luzu'  miyya'  t, stanza 32 (translated by R  A Nicholson in Studies in Islamic Poetry,1921).

A friend in power is a friend lost.

-Adams, Henry Brooks
  The Education of Henry  Adams, ch.7.

One friend in a lifetime ismuch; two are many; three are hardly possible.Friendship needs a certainparallelism of life, a community of thought, a rivalry of aim.

-Adams, Henry Brooks
  The Education of Henry  Adams, ch.20.

If all be true that I do think, There are five reasons why men drink, Good wine, a friend, or being dry, Or lest we should be by-and-by, Or any other reason why.

-Aldrich, Henry
  'Five Reasons for Drinking'.

La mort ne fait jamais mal. La mort est douce† Ce qui fait souffrir avec certains poisons, certaines blessures maladroites, c'est la vie. C'est le reste de vie. Il faut se confier franchement a'   la mort comme une amie. Death never hurts. Death is sweet† Life is what makes us suffer with its poisons and awkward injuries. That's what remains of life.We must confide freely in death as we would in a friend.

-Anouilh,Jean
Eurydice, act1.

Do¤ n de esta¤   la patria, amigo? Ni en el corazo¤  n ni en la saliva. Whereisthe country, my friend? It isnot intheheart or in the saliva.

-Arguedas,Jose¤   Mar|¤  a
El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo ('The Upper and the Lower Fox'), ch.3.

L'e"  tre le plus prostitue¤  , c'est l'e"  tre par excellence, c'est Dieu, puisqu'il est l'ami supre"  me pour chaque individu, puisqu'il est le re¤  servoir commun, ine¤  puisable de l'amour. The most prostituted being, the Being par excellence, is God, since he is supreme friend to every individual, since he is the common, inexhaustible reservoir of love.

-Baudelaire, Charles
  Mon coeur mis a'   nu, pt.46.

Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Psalms 41:9.

A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Proverbs17:17.

A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Proverbs18:24.

Open rebuke is better than secret love. Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemyare deceitful.

-Bible (Old Testament)
Proverbs 27:5^6.

A faithful friend is the medicine of life; and they that fear the Lord shall find him.

-Bible (Apocrypha)
Ecclesiasticus 6:16.

Forsake not an old friend; for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine; when it is old, thou shalt drink it with pleasure.

-Bible (Apocrypha)
Ecclesiasticus 9:10.

I was angry with my friend: I told my wrath, my wrath did end. I was angry with my foe: I told it not, my wrath did grow.

-Blake,William
  Songs of Experience,'A Poison Tree'.

Here we have a saying: a good friend is someone who visits you when you are in prison.But a really good friend is someone who comes to hear your lectures.

-Bradbury, Malcolm Stanley
  Rates of Exchange, pt.4, ch.3.

   Naught broken save this body, lost but breath; Nothing to shake the laughing heart's long peace there But onlyagony, and that has ending; And the worst friend and enemy is but Death.

-Brooke, Rupert Chawner
  'Peace'.

   Who's your fat friend?

-Brummel, George Bryan called Beau Brummell
c.1813  Of the Prince Regent. Remark addressed to his companion, whom the Prince had acknowledged while studiously ignoring Brummell. Quoted in  Jesse Life of George Brummell (1844), vol.1.

'Tis sweet to win, no matter how, one's laurels By blood or ink; 'tis sweet to put an end To strife; 'tis sometimes sweet to have our quarrels, Particularly with a tiresome friend; Sweet is old wine in bottles, ale in barrels; Dear is the helpless creature we defend Against the world; and dear the schoolboy spot We ne'er forget, though there we are forgot.

-Rochdale
^24  Don Juan, canto1, stanza126.

Give me the avowed, erect and manly foe; Firm I can meet, perhaps return the blow; But of all plagues, good Heaven, thy wrath can send, Save me, oh, save me, from the candid friend.

-Canning, George
  'New Morality', l.207^8.

Writers are always envious, mean-minded, filled with rage and envyat other's good fortune. There is nothing like the failure of a close friend to cheer us up.

-Carey, Peter
  In the Observer,18  Aug.