90 Best Friend Quotes to Celebrate Your Favorite People

READER'S DIGEST, GETTY IMAGES

Heartfelt friendship quotes

1. “Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life—and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next.” —Dean Koontz

2. “A good friendship is a conversation that never ends.” —Gloria Steinem

3. “There is nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with chocolate.” —Linda Grayson

4. “Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one.” —Oscar Wilde

5. “We need old friends to help us grow old and new friends to help us stay young.” —Letty Cottin Pogrebin

6. “Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.” —Richard Bach

7. “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who’ll help you catch the bus.” —Oprah Winfrey

8. “Close friends contribute to our personal growth. They also contribute to our personal pleasure, making the music sound sweeter, the wine taste richer, the laughter ring louder because they are there.” —Judith Viorst

9. “What sweetness is left in life, if you take away friendship? Robbing life of friendship is like robbing the world of the sun.” —Cicero

10. “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.” —Henry David Thoreau

11. “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark than alone in the light.” —Helen Keller

12. “The better part of one’s life consists of his friendships.” —Abraham Lincoln

13. “Friends are the family we choose for ourselves.” —Edna Buchanan

14. “It takes a great deal of bravery to stand up to our enemies, but just as much to stand up to our friends.” —J.K. Rowling

15. “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature.” —Jane Austen

16. “‘Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.” —Charles Lamb

17. “There is nothing better than the encouragement of a good friend.” —Katharine Butler Hathaway

18. “It seems to me that trying to live without friends is like milking a bear to get cream for your morning coffee.” —Zora Neale Hurston

19. “Ooh you’re the best friend that I ever had / I’ve been with you such a long time / you’re my sunshine / and I want you to know that my feelings are true / I really love you / Oh you’re my best friend.” —Queen, “You’re My Best Friend”

20. “A friend is a present you give yourself.” —Unknown

21. “If you have two friends in your lifetime, you’re lucky. If you have one good friend, you’re more than lucky.” —S.E. Hinton

READER'S DIGEST, GETTY IMAGES

Meaningful best friend quotes

22. “A friend may be waiting behind a stranger’s face.” —Maya Angelou

23. “Friendship … is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought that no one but myself … ‘” —C.S. Lewis

24. “New friends can often have a better time together than old friends.” —F. Scott Fitzgerald

25. “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” —Amy Poehler

26. “Many a time … from a bad beginning great friendships have sprung up.” —Terence

READER'S DIGEST, GETTY IMAGES

Quotes about the meaning of friendship

27. “Friendship is everything. Friendship is more than talent. It is more than the government. It is almost the equal of family.” —Mario Puzo

28. “Actually I think friendship and love are exactly the same thing.” —Truman Capote

29. “Ointment and perfume rejoice the heart: so doth the sweetness of a man’s friend by hearty counsel.” —Proverbs 27:9

30. “Give your friendships the magic you would give a romance. Because they’re just as important. Actually, for us, they’re way more important.” —Alice Oseman

31. “Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.” —Woodrow Wilson

32. “Life has no pleasure higher or nobler than that of friendship.” —Samuel Johnson

33. “One friend with whom you have a lot in common is better than three with whom you struggle to find things to talk about.” —Mindy Kaling

34. “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.” —Anaïs Nin

35. “A friend: one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” —Walter Winchell

36. “What is friendship? She is the essence of care, laughter and truth. She is an angel wearing street clothes.” —Ella McDaniels

37. “Real friends are the ones you can count on no matter what. The ones who go into the forest to find you and bring you home. And real friends never have to tell you that they’re your friends.” —Morgan Matson

38. “I would rather have a million friends than a million dollars.” —Eddie Rickenbacker

39. “Friends don’t spy; true friendship is about privacy too.” —Stephen King

40. “A good friend is a connection to life—a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.” —Lois Wyse

41. “The depth of a friendship—how much it means to us … depends, at least in part, upon how many parts of ourselves a friend sees, shares and validates.” —Lillian Rubin

42. “Friendship makes a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession; friendship is never anything but sharing.” —Elie Wiesel

43. “Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.” —Thomas Aquinas

44. “But if the while I think on thee, dear friend, all losses are restored and sorrows end.” —William Shakespeare

45. “Friendship is a plant that loves the sun, thrives ill under clouds.” —Amos Bronson Alcott

READER'S DIGEST, GETTY IMAGES

Quotes about childhood friendship

46. “There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.” —Sylvia Plath

47. “There’s not a word yet, for old friends who’ve just met.” —Jim Henson

48. “It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

49. “You don’t have to have anything in common with people you’ve known since you were five. With old friends, you’ve got your whole life in common.” —Lyle Lovett

50. “There’s no friend like someone who has known you since you were five.” —Anne Stevenson

51. “I still have friends from primary school. And my two best girlfriends are from secondary school. I don’t have to explain anything to them. I don’t have to apologize for anything. They know. There’s no judgment in any way.” —Emma Watson

52. “Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled.” —Ally Condie

READER'S DIGEST, GETTY IMAGES

Quotes about true friendship

53. “Only a true friend would be that truly honest.” —Donkey, in Shrek

54. “True friendship is never serene.” —Marie de Rabutin-Chantal, Marquise de Sévigné

55. “An acquaintance merely enjoys your company, a fair-weather companion flatters when all is well, a true friend has your best interests at heart and the pluck to tell you what you need to hear.” —E.A. Bucchianeri

56. “A good friend will help you move, but a true friend will help you move a body.” —Steven J. Daniels

57. “Time doesn’t take away from friendship, nor does separation.” —Tennessee Williams

58. “True friends are those who really know you but love you anyway.” —Edna Buchanan

59. “Real friends are those people who will stand for you expressing yourself fully, who will go out of their way to support you to keep your word, to go the extra mile, to get out of the box, to make your dreams come true.” —Nicholas Lore

60. “True friends are always together in spirit.” —L.M. Montgomery

61. “True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it is lost.” —Charles Caleb Colton

62. “A true friend will always listen to you patiently, assist you readily, stand with you boldly, advise you wisely, heal your wounds tenderly, and help you transform your pain effectively.” —Thich Nhat Tu

63. “With a true friend, one never needs to ask, because the other understands on his own accordingly.” —Andrea Camilleri

64. “A true friend never asks you to feed their imaginary fish. Or fertilize their imaginary crops.” —Teresa Medeiros

65. “The fellowship of true friends who can hear you out, share your joys, help carry your burdens, and correctly counsel you is priceless.” —Ezra Taft Benson

66. “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” —Elisabeth Foley

READER'S DIGEST, GETTY IMAGES

Short friendship quotes

67. “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.” —Aristotle

68. “It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.” —Marlene Dietrich

69. “No friendship is an accident.” —O. Henry

70. “Where there is friendship, there is our natural soil.” —Voltaire

71. “A friendship that can be ended didn’t ever start.” —Mellin de Saint-Gelais

72. “Friends are the siblings God never gave us.” —Mencius

73. “Friendship’s the wine of life.” —Edward Young

74. “You’ve got a friend in me.” —Randy Newman, Toy Story

75. “Friendship is the highest degree of perfection in society.” —Michel de Montaigne

76. “The only way to have a friend is to be one.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson

77. “Some people go to priests. Others go to poetry. I go to my friends.” —Virginia Woolf

78. “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12.” —Stephen King

79. “I get by with a little help from my friends.” —The Beatles

80. “Nothing cements friendship like mutual admiration.” —Shirley Watkins

81. “Only your real friends will tell you when your face is dirty.” —Sicilian proverb

82. “What is a friend? One soul dwelling in two bodies.” —Aristotle

83. “In my friend, I find a second self.” —Isabel Norton

84. “Life is an ugly, awful place to not have a best friend.” —Sarah Dessen

85. “Fortify yourself with a flock of friends!” —George Matthew Adams

86. “The pleasures of friendship are exquisite / How pleasant it is to go to a friend for a visit!” —Stevie Smith

87. “Constant use had not worn ragged the fabric of their friendship.” —Dorothy Parker

88. “‘You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.'” —E.B. White

89. “‘We’ll be friends forever, won’t we, Pooh?’ asked Piglet. ‘Even longer,’ Pooh answered.” —A.A. Milne

90. “The only rose without thorns is friendship.” —Madeleine de Scudéry

Additional reporting by Lindsay Tigar.

Why trust us

At Reader’s Digest, we’ve been sharing our favorite quotes for over 100 years. The sayings and quips that appear in the magazine’s “Quotable Quotes” (formerly “Remarkable Remarks”) are curated from interviews and essays originally published in the magazine, reprints from trusted titles and other verified sources. For this piece on best friend quotes, Chloë Nannestad tapped her experience as a journalist and researcher to ensure that all information is accurate. We’ve gone the extra step and had Marcy Lovitch, a fact-checker with 20-plus years of experience researching for national publications including Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping, Family Circle, Glamour, Seventeen, Real Simple, Forbes and InStyle magazines, verify that all quotes are attributed correctly and have credible sourcing. Read more about our team, our contributors and our editorial policies.