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There is no greater desert or wilderness then to be without true friends.
For without friendship, society is but [a] meeting. And as it is certain, that in bodies inanimate, union strengtheneth any natural motion, and weakeneth any violent motion; So amongst men, friendship multiplieth joys, and divideth griefs. Therefore, whosoever wanteth fortitude, let him worship Friendship.
For the yoke of Friendship maketh the yoke of fortune more light.
There be some whose lives are, as if they perpetually played upon a stage, disguised to all others, open only to themselves. But perpetual dissimulation is painful; and he [or she] that is all Fortune, and no Nature, is an exquisite Hireling.
Live not in continual smother, but take some friends with whom to communicate. It will unfold thy understanding; it will evaporate thy affections; it will prepare thy business.
A man may keep a corner of his mind from his friend, and it be but to witness to himself, that it is not upon facility, but upon true use of friendship that he imparteth himself.
[It is best to] want of true [or honest] friends, as it is the reward of perfidious* natures; so is it an imposition upon great fortunes. The one deserves it, the other cannot escape it. And therefore, it is good to retain sincerity, and to put it into the reckoning of Ambition, that the higher one goes [in her mind and in status], the fewer true friends [she] shall have.
Perfection of friendship, is but a speculation.
It is friendship, when a man can say to himself, “I love this man without respect of utility. I am open hearted to him, I single him from the generality of those with whom I live; I make him a portion of my own wishes.”
- Francis Bacon
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*Perfidious – Perfidy: positive definition – beyond the limits of (faith); negative definition – deceitful, treacherous.
Side note: It’s important to know that all words have, both, a positive and a negative connotation dependent upon the usage, implication, and understanding of the word.
