101 Best Friendship Quotes and Messages (2024)

When you meet a true friend, you’ve met someone to share life’s greatest adventures with. Such people cross your path only a few times in a lifetime. And anyone who has ever had a true friend will tell you they’re the greatest treasure, hands down. What better way to celebrate those special friendships than with a few inspirational quotes about friendship? For many of us, it’s no small task to sum up what friendship means in just a few sentences. That’s why we’ve looked high and low to find the 101+ best friendship quotes and messages to express what our own words truly can’t.

101 Best Friendship Quotes and Messages

Famous Quotes About Friendship

Aristotle once said: Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies. If you’re looking for a pithy quote about friendship, it’s hard to beat Aristotle. But he wasn’t alone: There are countless famous quotes about friendship from novelists, playwrights, and poets. Check out some of our favorites here.

1. “Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”— Albert Camus
2. “Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.”― Mark Twain
3. “Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness.”— Euripedes
4. “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.”— Dale Carnegie
5. “For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge that you are never alone.”— Audrey Hepburn
6. “Dear George, remember no man is a failure who has friends.”— Clarence, It’s A Wonderful Life
7. “A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.”— Ralph Waldo Emerson
8. “With success comes the never-ending task of blocking or weeding out fake friends.”― Mokokoma Mokhonoana
9. “The best time to make friends is before you need them.”― Ethel Barrymore
10. “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.”― Aristotle
11. “Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends.” ―Virginia Woolf

Inspirational Friendship Quotes & Messages

Friends inspire us when other people can’t. For all our quirks and flaws, our friends see things in us that we don’t always notice—and often, they remind us of who we could be if we put our mind to it. Here’s to the friends who inspire us.

1. “Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”— Elie Wiesel
2. “Don’t make friends who are comfortable to be with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.”— Thomas J. Watson
3. “I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.”— Plutarch
4. “One honest friend is worth more than a million sycophants.”― Kevin Ansbro
5. “I have friends in overalls whose friendship I would not swap for the favor of the kings of the world.”— Thomas A. Edison

Beautiful and Poignant Quotes on Friendship

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what can a true friendship be worth? The love between friends can be both beautiful and transformative. There are no limits when it comes to the power of friendship to inspire us, to heal us, to ignite us. These quotes express the poignant beauty of a good friend.

1. “A true friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else.”— Len Wein
2. “If I had a flower for every time I thought of you…I could walk through my garden forever.”― Alfred Tennyson
3. “I’m so grateful for those who never gave up on me… Those who spoke TO me instead of ABOUT me… Those who showed me the LOVE I wouldn’t show myself.”― Steve Maraboli
4. “May the angels be your sacred companion.”― Lailah Gifty Akita
5. “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.”― Walter Winchell
6. “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
7. “Do you think that every time we meet a person we should treat it like it was the last time we ever were going to see them?”― Rutu Modan, Exit Wounds
8. “People. One might find friends here. She had found at least one friend already. And since she had had no friends at all, that was a treasure past any attempt at counting.”― Steve Miller, Conflict of Honors
9. “Harry realized that the chains were actually one work repeated a thousand times in golden ink: friends.. friends.. friends..”― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Short and Concise Friendship Quotes

See Also

130 True Friendship Quotes To Share With Your Friends

Brevity is the soul of wit and a sign of understanding between friends. Most good friends develop a linguistic shorthand that lets them express deep ideas in just a few words. These short and concise quotes about friendship express a little on the surface and a lot underneath, just like the secret language between friends.

1. “Most friendships begin with a compliment.”— Peter M. Brown
2. “It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.”— Marlene Dietrich
3. “Friendship is Love without his wings.”— Lord Byron
4. “Plant a seed of friendship; reap a bouquet of happiness”— Lois L. Kaufman
5. “Friendship is the tonic to a bereaved soul.”― Udai Yadla
6. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”― Confucius
7. “A true friend is the best Possession.”― Ben Franklin
8. “Friendship is a sheltering tree.”— Samuel Taylor Coleridge
9. “Best friends are life’s truth-tellers.”― T.J. Condon, Some Assembly Required: A True Story of Love and Organ Transplants

Cute and Charming Friendship Quotes

There is nothing more charming than a bit of light-hearted banter among friends. These cute and charming quotes celebrate the teasing, the goofiness, and the ocean of love hidden beneath the depths of the banter.

1. “It is more fun to talk with someone who doesn’t use long, difficult words but rather short, easy words like “What about lunch?”― A. A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
2. “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
3. “Friends can be said to “fall in like” with as profound a thud as romantic partners fall in love.”— Letty Cottin Pogrebin
4. “Friendship’s the wine of life.”— Edward Young
5. “A day without a friend is like a pot without a single drop of honey left inside.”— Winnie the Pooh
6. “I always say, Lorelei Lee got it wrong inGentlemen Prefer Blondes.It’s not that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but it’s your best friends who are your diamonds. It’s your best friends who are supremely resilient, made under pressure, and of astonishing value. They’re everlasting; they can cut glass if they need to.”— Gina Barreca
7. Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.— Marcel Proust

Humorous Friendship Quotes

Life is never predictable, so you have to roll with the punches. The best quotes about friendship bubble over with good humor, reminding us to find someone to laugh with instead of punching back.

1. Friendship is like peeing on yourself: everyone can see it, but only you get the warm feeling that it brings.― Robert Bloch
2. “There is nothing better than a friend unless it is a friend with chocolate.”― Linda Grayson.
3. “You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.”― A.A. Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh.
4. “Friends don’t let friends wear beards without mustaches.”― Meg Wolitzer, The Female Persuasion.
5. “A stranger stabs you in the front, a friend stabs you in the back, a boyfriend stabs you in the heart, but best friends only poke each other with straws.”― Anonymous.
6. “A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked”— Bernard Meltzer.
7. “He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”— Oscar Wilde.
8. “I know you’re not supposed to talk sh*t about your friends, but it is quite literally the only thing that helps you cope with the nightmare of having friends.”― Cazzie David, No One Asked for This: Essays.
9. “From now on, I am dealing with certain people with a long-handled spoon.”― Charlena E. Jackson, Pinwheels and Dandelions
10. “Friendship’s the wine of life.”― Edward Young.
11. “A friend with a boat is better than owning a boat.”― Kevin Kelly

Deep and Meaningful Friendship Quotes

From theFellowship of the Ringto the letters between life-long pen-pals, we see that true friendship equals an almost limitless depth of love. These quotes provoke the kind of deep thoughts that arise from having experienced a heart-to-heart bond with someone other than family.

1. “Friendship that has stood through long years of trial cannot be looked upon by either party without hope and exultation.”― Anonymous
2. “Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.”― Helen Keller
3. “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”― Muhammad Ali
4. “A friend is the one who finds the first drop of your tear, catches the second drop, stops the third drop and changes the fourth drop into a smile.”― Anonymous
5. “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day so I never have to live without you.”― Joan Powers
6. “Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and right-doing, there is a field. I’ll meet you there.― Rumi
7. “I am Gandalf the White. And I come back to you now, at the turn of the tide.”― Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
8. “There comes a point in your life when you realize who really matters, who never did, and who always will.”— Anonymous
9. “We come into the world alone, we die alone, we live alone. Love and friendship is the nearest thing that we can find to create the illusion that we are not totally alone”― Orson Welles
10. “Remember that life’s most valuable antiques are dear old friends.”― H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
11. “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
12. “Friendship is the mirror in which you discover yourself.”― M. Neman

Quirky Friendship Quotes

We all have that quirky friend like Phoebe Buffay onFriendswho sings about smelly cats and wears Santa pants when they’re pregnant. But it’s exactly because those friends feel comfortable enough to be their quirky selves around us that we love them so much. But beware: These quirky quotes about friendship will definitely make you chuckle and may even inspire you to go out and buy some Santa pants of your own.

1. “I don’t know half of you half as well as I should like, and I like less than half of you half as well as you deserve.”— Bilbo, The Fellowship of the Ring
2. “Grandmomma always said people were like tacos—the harder they were, the easier they broke. Being soft meant being adaptive, more flexible. “― L.J. Shen, Playing with Fire
3. “Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.”― C.S. Lewis
4. “A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.”― Arnold H. Glasgow
5. “Real friendship is when your friend comes over to your house and then you both just take a nap.”— Anonymous
6. “As much as a BFF can make you go WTF, there’s no denying we’d be a little less rich without them.”— Gossip Girl
7. “A hug is like a boomerang – you get it back right away.”— Bil Keane
8. “Constant use will not wear ragged the fabric of friendship.”— Dorothy Parker
9. “I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar.” — Robert Brault
10. “One good friendship will outlive forty average loves.”— Anonymous
11. “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
12. “Life is an ugly, awful place to not have a best friend.”— Sarah Dessen

Double-Edged Friendship Quotes

It has been said that some of our friendships are like glass; they can be beautiful and yet, oh-so-easy to break. Once broken, they’ll never be perfect again. But through it all, you can still see who you were before the friendship shattered. When you’re trying to make sense of your most complicated friendships, these quotes might help.

1. “If it’s very painful for you to criticize your friends — you’re safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that’s the time to hold your tongue.” ― Alice Duer Miller
2. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”― Martin Luther King Jr
3. “Friendship is not threatened by honest criticism. It is strengthened.”― Charles Swindoll
4. “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.”― Friedrich Nietzsche
5. “Nobody likes being alone that much. I don’t go out of my way to make friends, that’s all. It just leads to disappointment. ”― Haruki Murakami
6. “Typos and type shifts can change true friends into thorough fiends.”― Stewart Stafford
7. “My college years were spent among people who were like oil in water, unable to form bonds.”― Qiu Miaojin
8. “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”— Oprah Winfrey
9. “A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship.”— John D. Rockefeller
10. “Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends.”— Shirley MacLaine
11. “It is difficult to say who do you the most mischief: enemies with the worst intentions or friends with the best.”— Edward Bulwer-Lytton
12. “It is easier to forgive an enemy than to forgive a friend.”— William Blake

New Friendship Quotes for Building Connections

A song used to be sung around campfires that likened friendships to gold and silver. That is, our old friendships represent the gold in our lives, while the new friendships represent life’s silver. These quotes celebrate the silver lining that new friends bring into our lives.

1. A new friendship is just an old friendship that’s just waiting to age a bit.― Anonymous
2. “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
3. “All people are friends waiting to happen, so tell your friends to friend me”― Justin Rieger
4. “The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul.”― Shanna Rodriguez
5. “There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met.”― Jim Henson
6. “Friendship isn’t about whom you have known the longest …It’s about who came, and never left your side.”― Anonymous
7. “Friends and good manners will carry you where money won’t go.”— Margaret Walker
8. “It takes a long time to grow an old friend.”— John Leonard
9. “Your friends will know you better in the first minute you meet than your acquaintances will know you in a thousand years.”— Richard Bach

Long Distance Friendship Quotes

The most solid friendships stand both the test of time and the test of distance. In the old days, people kept these friendships alive through phone calls and postcards. These days, it’s Zoom and Skype that bridge the gap. If you have a friendship that has been tested by distance, then you’ll appreciate these quotes.

1. “Sweet is the memory of distant friends! Like the mellow rays of the departing sun, it falls tenderly, yet sadly, on the heart.”― Washington Irving
2. “Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that.”― Ally Condie
3. “Girls will move across the country with a boyfriend they’ve known less than a year, and people think that’s normal because it’s romantic love. But living with your best friend? Or for Dee, staying close to her parents and brothers? I don’t think that’s weird or codependent. I think it’s basic: if you find people you love, you want to be near them.”― Emery Lord, Open Road Summer
4. “There is magic in long-distance friendships. They let you relate to other human beings in a way that goes beyond being physically together and is often more profound.”― Diana Cortes
5. “If ever there is tomorrow when we’re not together.. there is something you must always remember. you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. but the most important thing is, even if we’re apart.. I’ll always be with you.”— Winnie the Pooh
6. “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.”— Henry David Thoreau
7. “True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart.”— Anonymous
8. “A strong friendship doesn’t need daily conversations.”― Anonymous

Friendship Quotes – The Final Word

Love comes in many different forms, and it can be challenging to make sense of all its nuances. The love between friends has perhaps the most nuances of all: a bond like siblings, a rivalry like foes, and loyalty like nothing else. Our love for and deep bond with our friends often defies logic and distance and even our own words. It’s in those times that quotes about friendship give us words when we can’t manufacture our own.

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