“A friend is a second self.”

Life is nothing without friendship.

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others.

The wise are instructed by reason, average minds by experience, the stupid by necessity and the brute by instinct.

Your enemies can kill you, but only your friends can hurt you.

To study philosophy is nothing but to prepare one’s self to die.

No power on earth, if it labours beneath the burden of fear, can possibly be strong enough to survive.

He only employs his passion who can make no use of his reason.

To teach is a necessity, to please is a sweetness, to persuade is a victory.

Nobody can give you wiser advice than yourself: if you heed yourself, you’ll never go wrong.

Knowledge which is divorced from justice may be called cunning rather than wisdom.

If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.

What is sweeter than lettered ease?

Though silence is not necessarily an admission, it is not a denial, either.

Nothing cruel is in fact beneficial; for cruelty is extremely hostile to the nature of man, which we ought to follow.

To be content with what we possess is the greatest and most secure of riches.

The closer the collapse of the Empire, the crazier its laws are.

Ask yourself if you would feel comfortable giving your two best friends a key to your house. If not, look for some new best friends.

He who runs away from a fearful calamity, a foreign invasion, a terrible famine, and the companionship of wicked men is safe.

Do not put your trust in a bad companion nor even trust an ordinary friend, for if he should get angry with you, he may bring all your secrets to light.

He is extremely loyal to his friends, but he is tougher than anyone if he feels betrayed.

Test a servant while in the discharge of his duty, a relative in difficulty, a friend in adversity, and a wife in misfortune.

Whenever I have friends over, we end up eating and talking and losing track of time, and, once in a while, singing karaoke. It reminds me of the family meals we had in Russia, which always lasted a very long time. That’s a tradition I miss.

It ain’t no fun if the homies can’t have none.

A friend is someone who knows you and loves you for what you were and who you are, and who also shares your hopes and dreams for who you can become.