friendship? yes please.

November 18, 2008 9:46 PM

Anyone have suggestions for friendship quotes that are cute, but not sappy/cheesy? And short is good.

I'm organizing a bridal shower, and I want to add a little tag with a friendship quote on the guest favours.

Example of a quote I like:
"Friendship? Yes please." -Charles Dickens

Thanks.

posted by cheemee to human relations (27 comments total)

A personal favorite: "A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature." -Ralph Waldo Emerson

(Google turns up a whole bunch of sites that may be helpful.)
posted by Balonious Assault at 10:17 PM on November 18, 2008

True friends are like diamonds... they are real and rare. False friends are like leaves... they are scattered everywhere.

A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.

Everyone hears what you say... Friends listen to what you say... Best friends listen to what you don't say...
posted by netbros at 10:19 PM on November 18, 2008

Wikiquote is your friend here. A few that jumped out at me from that:

I get by with a little help from my friends.
-The Beatles

Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend's success.
-Oscar Wilde

A true friend stabs you in the front.
-Oscar Wilde
posted by Salvor Hardin at 10:23 PM on November 18, 2008

Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
posted by rhizome at 10:44 PM on November 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

Each friend represents a world in us, a world not possibly born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.
- Anais Nin
posted by lemuria at 11:48 PM on November 18, 2008 [2 favorites]

A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart, and can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words.
posted by captainsohler at 11:52 PM on November 18, 2008 [3 favorites]

I get by with a little help from my friends.
-The Beatles

Don't forget "I get high with a little help from my friends"
posted by BrnP84 at 11:53 PM on November 18, 2008

I like the one attributed to Elbert Hubbard which goes 'Your friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.'
posted by misteraitch at 12:23 AM on November 19, 2008

This is not short, so sorry in advance for that.
But I think you'll forgive me when you read it. Aloud is better.

With my Foot in My Mouth
by Dennis Lee (from the collection Nicholas Knock and Other People)

The reason I clobbered
Your door like that,
Is cause it's time
We had a chat.

But don't start getting
Talkative-
I've got a speech
I want to give:

"A person needs
A pal alot,
And a pal is what
I'm glad I've got,

So thank you. Thank you."
There, it's said!
I feel my earlobes
Getting red,

And I wish you wouldn't
Grin that way!
It isn't healthy,
Night or day.

But even though
You're such a jerk,
With your corny jokes
And your goofy smirk,

I'm sort of glad
You're my old pard.
You're cheaper than
A bodyguard,

And smaller than a
Saint Bernard,
And cleaner than a
Wrecker's yard.

I like the way
You save on socks:
You wear them till they're
Hard as rocks.

And I think those missing
Teeth are keen:
Your mouth looks like
A slot machine

And every time
I see you grin,
I stick another
Quarter in.

You make me laugh
Till we trip on chairs;
One day we nearly
Fell downstairs.

But I think you're kind of
Brave, I guess:
Your no means no,
Your yes means yes,

And even if
It makes you shrink,
You say the things
You really think.

In fact your mouth
Is never closed-
Your tonsils blush,
They're so exposed.

And your tweety voice
Is never quiet;
They must put birdseed
In your diet.

Still, you seem to know,
When we kid a lot,
A time for kidding
A time for not-

Cause often things
I say to you,
I'd ache if any
Body knew.

You choke me up,
You make me sneeze,
I've caught you like
A rare disease:

I'd like to come and
Rub your back;
I'd like to feed you
Crackerjack

And send you messages
In code
And walk along you
Like a road

And bath you till your
Fleas are gone
And stuff you like
A mastodon,

And let's go play
In Kendal Park;
There's still an hour
Before it's dark.

Cause some things last and
Some things end-
I want you always
For my friend.

-- Dennis Lee
posted by pseudostrabismus at 12:38 AM on November 19, 2008 [9 favorites]

I like:

"Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: What! You too? I thought I was the only one."

Which was, apparently, said by C.S. Lewis. I guess it's more about the beginning of friendship rather than friendship itself. I still like it, though.
posted by Dreamcast at 12:49 AM on November 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

I always liked the toast from 25th Hour:

"Champaign for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends."
posted by slimepuppy at 1:17 AM on November 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

"I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult the calendar" --Robert Brault
posted by sambosambo at 2:30 AM on November 19, 2008

This is another long one, but you could definitely pick out a line or two that would be beautiful on its own. It's from The Prophet, by Khalil Gibran:

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."

Your friend is your needs answered.

He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.

And he is your board and your fireside.

For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay."

And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;

For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not;

For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.

For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend.

If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.

For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live.

For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.

And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasure
posted by twirlypen at 3:08 AM on November 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

Just adding the last line of the Prophet on Friendship (Which is one of my favorites) which was omitted accidentally by Twirypen...I find the last line quite beautiful and it is worth knowing


"For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed."
posted by murrey at 4:07 AM on November 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

This one might not be well-received in mixed company, but I like it:

"Friends are God's way of apologizing to us for our families."
posted by amyms at 6:07 AM on November 19, 2008 [2 favorites]

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.

Attributed to Walter Winchell here, though I'm sure I saw it attributed to someone else when I first came across it.
posted by StephenF at 6:08 AM on November 19, 2008

Nobody sees a flower—really—it is so small. It takes time—we haven't time—and to see takes time, like having a friend takes time. —Georgia O'Keeffe
posted by steef at 7:25 AM on November 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

"He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes.
But I have made him my friend, and now he is unique in all the world."

Antoine de St. Exupery, "The Little Prince"
posted by ottereroticist at 7:42 AM on November 19, 2008

Does the theme song from the Golden Girls qualify as sappy?
posted by averyoldworld at 8:28 AM on November 19, 2008

"A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Honest men esteem and value nothing so much in this world as a real friend. Such a one is as it were another self, to whom we impart our most secret thoughts, who partakes of our joy, and comforts us in our affliction; add to this, that his company is an everlasting pleasure to us." - Bidpai

"He used to say that it was better to have one friend of great value than many friends who were good for nothing." - Diogenes Laërtius

"Two friends, two bodies with one soul inspir’d" - Alexander Pope
posted by easy_being_green at 8:52 AM on November 19, 2008

A friend is one who dislikes the same people you dislike. -Anonymous
posted by soelo at 8:55 AM on November 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

Reading this thread has warmed my heart.

One of my favorites:
If you press me to say why I loved him, I can say no more than because he was he, and I was I. -- Michel de Montaigne

And probably not quite what you're looking for, but I love this:
Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great. -- Mark Twain
posted by widdershins at 10:10 AM on November 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

...and someone just sent me this:
A friend is someone who thinks you're a good egg even though you're slightly cracked.
posted by widdershins at 10:21 AM on November 19, 2008 [1 favorite]

A good friend will bail you out of jail. A true friend will be sitting next to you, saying, "Damn, that was fun!"
posted by liquado at 11:03 AM on November 19, 2008

Give me your hands, if we be friends...

-Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream
posted by triggerfinger at 12:14 PM on November 19, 2008

Another good one by C.S. Lewis:

Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.

Also, the full version of the other C.S. Lewis quote I posted:

Friendship arises out of mere companionship when two or more of the companions discover that they have in common some insight or interest or even taste which the others do not share and which, till that moment, each believed to be his own unique treasure (or burden). The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, "What? You too? I thought I was the only one."

I prefer the compressed version, though.
posted by Dreamcast at 3:31 PM on November 19, 2008

Thanks for all the help folks. There's some really great quotes here.

Sorry i didn't say my thanks earlier, got too busy with the bridal shower prep. Anyways, the quotes turned out to be quite a success... so thanks again!
posted by cheemee at 4:54 PM on November 23, 2008