The only reward of virtue is virtue; the only way to have a friend is to be one.

...if you consider any man a friend whom you do not trust as you trust yourself, you are mightily mistaken and you do not sufficiently understand what true friendship means.

...he who looks upon a true friend, looks, as it were, upon a sort of image of himself. Wherefore friends, though absent, are at hand; though in need, yet abound; though weak, are strong; and—harder saying still—though dead, are yet alive; so great is the esteem on the part of their friends, the tender recollection and the deep longing that still attends them.

...you are my devoted friend too. You do more and work harder and oh shit I'd get maudlin about how damned swell you are. My god I'd like to see you... You're a hell of a good guy.

Definition of a friend: One who walks in—when the rest of the world walks out.

John and I have been friends ever since we were roommates at college. Trust is important between friends. I used to find it hard to make friends when I was shy.

We became friends in the war and remain friends to this day. We were friends with some girls from the other school and stayed friends with them.

The Automobile Association is every motorist's friend. The police is every law-abiding citizen's friend.

The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you "stay up to date with what your friends are doing",[…]and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.

I added him as a friend on Facebook, but I hardly know him.

But don't take the following sections as an endorsement of friends. Top C++ programmers avoid using friends unless absolutely necessary.

In that case, the function needn't (and shouldn't) be a friend.

To make a function be a friend to a class, the reserved word friend precedes the function prototype[…]

Since they were introduced in the 1970s, friends have revolutionized climbing, making protection possible in previously impossible places […]

Time has been, when a gentleman wanted a friend, I could supply him with choice in an hour; but the market is spoiled, and a body might as soon produce a hare or a partridge […]

I met your friend. She's very nice, what can I say?

He was not a drop's blood to me, though him and my wife were far-out friends.

Meanwhile on The View, Whoopi Goldberg and friends continue to issue forced apologies for their assumptive comments regarding non-profit organisation Turning Point USA...

Lo sluggish Knight the victors happie pray: / So fortune friends the bold ….

’Tis true, the stuff I bring for sale
Is not so brisk a brew as ale:
Out of a stem that scored the hand
I wrung it in a weary land.
But take it: if the smack is sour,
The better for the embittered hour;
It should do good to heart and head
When your soul is in my soul’s stead;
And I will friend you, if I may,
In the dark and cloudy day.

2006, David Fono and Kate Raynes-Goldie, "Hyperfriendship and Beyond: Friends and Social Norms on LiveJournal" (PDF version), Internet Research Annual Volume 4, Peter Lang, →ISBN, page 99,
The difference between responses to the statement, "If someone friends me, I will friend them," and "If I friend someone, I expect them to friend me back," is telling.

One of the most used features of MySpace is the practice that is nicknamed "friending." If you "friend" someone, then that person is added to your MySpace friends list, and you are added to their friends list.

Friend

Meaning

Noun

Verb

Name

Origin

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related

Rhymes