Help me find a quote/poem/proverb about friendship and neighbors.

December 4, 2008 8:16 AM

Please help me find a quote, proverb or poem, about friendship and neighbors.

I am putting together a recipe book as a gift for a group of ladies in my neighborhood that I meet with on a monthly basis. Prior to knowing these women, I didn't really have a sense of "neighborhood" and now I love our area so much more - learning the past and working together for a better future for our little part of town.

I'd like to include either a series of quotes/proverbs about good friends making a neighborhood better, but am having a hard time finding anything - beyond "good fences make good neighbors" which really isn't my point. Or a nice short poem about how knowing them has made where I live a better place to be. We span ages and ethnicities and politics, so I'm open to pretty much anything. (I've googled. I'm not a wild fan of poetry as a general rule, so I'm really struggling. Bartlett's has been only minimally helpful.)

posted by librarianamy to writing & language (7 answers total)

Good neighbors lend things; great neighbors lend themselves.

- Ben Franklin ok i just made it up
posted by mikepop at 8:43 AM on December 4, 2008

"Friendship is precious, not only in the shade, but in the sunshine of life; and thanks to a benevolent arrangement of things, the greater part of life is sunshine." ~Thomas Jefferson

"A community is the mental and spiritual condition of knowing that the place is shared, and that the people who share the place define and limit the possibilities of each other's lives. It is the knowledge that people have of each other, their concern for each other, their trust in each other, the freedom with which they come and go among themselves." ~Wendell Berry

"Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends." ~Clarence, the angel in It's a Wonderful Life
posted by headnsouth at 9:04 AM on December 4, 2008

Ere the dimming of the light
Ere the coming of the night
Find me neighbors of like mind
Strong of heart and clear of mind
Who have the strength the world to face
and the neighborhood embrace.
posted by mikepop at 9:16 AM on December 4, 2008

He that is a friend loveth at all times: and a brother is proved in distress. - Proverbs 17:17

Ointment and perfumes rejoice the heart: and the good counsels of a friend are sweet to the soul. - Proverbs 27:9
posted by jquinby at 9:21 AM on December 4, 2008 [1 favorite]

He that is a friend loveth at all times: and a brother is proved in distress. - Proverbs 17:17

Clearly the contemporary version is: A friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a body.

Or in a less sarcastic note:

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
---Ralph Waldo Emerson
posted by elendil71 at 10:31 AM on December 4, 2008

To a friend's house the way is never long.

Old Amish saying
posted by raisingsand at 11:58 AM on December 4, 2008

How about the theme song from the tv show Neigbours?

Neighbours, Everybody needs good neighbours
With a little understanding
You can find the perfect blend
Neighbours...should be there for one another
That's when good neighbours become good friends
Ooh Neighbours, should be there for one another
That's when good neighbours become good friends.
posted by jacalata at 2:06 PM on December 4, 2008