Friends, Companions

Arabian Wisdom, by John Wortabet, [1913], at sacred-texts.com

Friends, Companions

A friend is a second self and a third eye.

A true man is he who remembers his friend when he is absent, when he is in distress, and when he dies.

A friend is known only in adversity.

If your friend is sweet, do not eat him up.

If you would keep a friend, do not lend him money nor borrow from him.

Keep to your old friends—your new friends will not be so constant.

You may find in a friend a brother who was not born of your mother.

The noblest man is he whose friendship may be easily obtained, and whose enmity can be incurred only with difficulty.

He is a weak man who can make no friends, and still weaker is he who loses them.

When my vine was laden with grapes, my friends

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were many; when the grapes were finished, my friends disappeared.

Friendship may come down by inheritance from ancestors, and so may hatred.

Nothing makes us feel so lonely as solitude, and nothing makes us so cheerful as freedom from evil companions.

Without human companions, Paradise itself would be an undesirable place to live in.

A man's character is judged by the character of his companions.

Smoke is no less an evidence of fire than that a man's character is that of the character of his associates.

He who associates with a suspected person will himself be suspected.