The quote database

The longer we live, and the more we think, the higher value we learn to put on the friendship and tenderness of parents and of friends.

Many friendships are formed by a community of sensual pleasures: all these will be cut off.

Think only when you see me, that you see a man who loves you, and is proud and glad that you love him.

To disappoint a friend is unpleasing; and he that forms expectations like yours, must be disappointed.

If a man stumbles, it is a good thing to help him to his feet. Every one of us needs a helping hand now and then.

Society is produced by our wants, and government by our wickedness; the former promotes our happiness positively by uniting our affections, the latter negatively by restraining our vices.

Where there is great love there are always miracles.

Start each day with a task completed. Find someone to help you through life. Respect everyone.

We knew that if one man could rise above the misery then others could as well.

You can’t change the world alone — you will need some help — and to truly get from your starting point to your destination takes friends, colleagues, the good will of strangers and a strong coxswain to guide them.

If you want to change the world, find someone to help you paddle.

There is then no sympathy, but an uneasy craving after it, and a dissatisfaction which pursues you on the way, and in the end probably produces ill-humour.

Most of the friends I have seen have turned out the bitterest enemies, or cold, uncomfortable acquaintance.

Intimate friends are not fair witnesses to character, any more than professed enemies.

Friendships are frequently taken up on some sudden sympathy, and we see only as much as we please of one another's characters afterwards.

Old companions are like meats served up too often, that lose their relish and their wholesomeness.

The spectacle of effort is what awakens and sustains our own effort.

Arbitration is the true method of settlement of international as well as local or individual differences.