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Quotes and Bible Verses About Friendship

Friendship

Real friendship is a fundamental element of human life. Devoted friends are hard to find and should be treasured members of your life. The companionship they provide you through good times and bad, victories and defeats, loves lost and found, comes while providing a connection that is solid and without judgment. 

I have been lucky to experience loyal friendships and I value those relationships as much as I do love and family. Acquaintances and associates have been many in number, but faithful friends are but a handful. That makes them exceedingly valuable.

Friends are created with a bond that's founded on trust, mutual respect, shared encounters, unwavering support, a sense of duty, and selflessness. When you compare the people in your life to that example, you'll see why few fit the definition of a genuine friend.

Read: 10 Ways to Become the Best, Best Friend

I love good Western movies and 1993 Tombstone is one of my favorites. Kurt Russell plays Wyatt Earp and Val Kilmer fills the role of Doc Holiday. After a particularly intense gunfight, Doc Holiday, who is suffering from Tuberculosis, is coughing severely. 

Knowing his health is failing, one of the men asks him, "What are you doing here? You should be in bed." 

Doc answers, "Because Wyatt is my friend." 

The other man replies, "Hell, I've got lots of friends." 

Doc ends the conversation with a poignant "I don't."

Doc knew that although he had relationships with a considerable number of people, actual friends were a rare thing.

Here are some of my favorite quotes and Bible verses touting the value of friendship. I hope it reminds you of someone you can call a friend.

Quotes and Bible Verses About Friendship

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow."

-William Shakespeare

"Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare -- and precious as a pearl."

-Tahar Ben Jelloun

"It is only the great-hearted who can be true friends; the mean and the cowardly can never know what true friendship is."

-Charles Kinsley

"Of all possessions a friend is the most precious."

-Herodotus

"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself."

-Jim Morrison

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

-Walter Winchell

"When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands."

-Maria Shriver

"You can always tell a real friend: when you've made a fool of yourself he doesn't feel you've done a permanent job."

-Laurence J. Peter

"Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness."

-Euripides

"Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light."

-Helen Keller

"There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship."

-Thomas Aquinas

"Friends are the best to turn to when you're having a rough day."

-Justin Bieber

"If you wanna find out who's a true friend, screw up or go through a challenging time... then see who sticks around."

-Karen Salmonsohn

"The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away."

-Barbara Kingsolver

"A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down."

-Arnold H. Glasgow

"Some people go to priests. Others to poetry. I to my friends."

-Virginia Woolf

"A single rose can be my garden... a single friend, my world."

-Leo Buscaglia

"Friendship is a living thing that lasts only as it is nourished with kindness, sympathy, and understanding."

-Mary Lou Retton

"A best friend is like a four-leaf clover, hard to find, lucky to have."

-Irish Proverb

"My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me."

-Henry Ford

"The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it."

-Hubert H. Humphrey

"Things are never quite as scary when you've got a best friend."

-Bill Watterson

"I have learned that friendship isn't about who you've known the longest, it's about who came and never left your side."

-Yolanda Hadid

"If you have one true friend you have more than your share."

-Thomas Fuller

"A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same."

-Elbert Hubbard

"Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years."

-Richard Bach

"The love that comes from friendship is the underlying facet of a happy life."

-Chelsea Handler

"One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives."

-Euripides

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."

-Anais Nin

"One of the things you can give and will not cost you any money is friendship."

-Catherine Pulsifer

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Remember that the most valuable antiques are dear old friends."

-H. Jackson Brown Jr.

"Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit."

-Aristotle

"Friends... they cherish one another's hopes. They are kind to one another's dreams."

-Henry David Thoreau

"Friendship is a pretty full-time occupation if you really are friendly with somebody. You can't have too many friends because then you're just not really friends."

-Truman Capote

"Since there is nothing so well worth having as friends, never lose a chance to make them."

-Francesco Guicciardini

That's What Friends Are For

To Barb,

You are my soulmate, my partner, my lover, and most of all my best friend. Thank you for a life of encouragement, laughter, support, warmth, and trust. Spending a lifetime with my best friend is more than I could have dreamed of. When my prayers were answered, God blessed me with you. I'm yours forever and a day.

Final Thoughts on Friendship

Friendship is a special gift and one that can have a profound impact on our lives. Studies have shown that people with strong social connections, including devoted friends, have better mental health and a more positive outlook on life.

I say this to encourage you to nurture those special companions. Friendships, like any relationship, take dedication and attention. Good friends can even increase your lifespan so make time in your schedule for the people that matter most to you.

Creating a solid friendship requires commitment and sacrifice, but that energy spent will result in a friend for life.

As Clarence, the angel admonished George Bailey in It's a Wonderful Life, "Remember, no man is a failure who has friends."

Now go live your best life,

Dan