Ideas

Quotations to Stir Mind and Heart

Quotations to Stir Heart and Mind

[W]e all need friends with whom we can speak of our deepest concerns, and who do not fear to speak the truth in love to us.Margaret Guenther, Holy Listening: The Art of Spiritual Direction

One of the greatest human longings is to be close to someone.Kathleen R. Fischer and Thomas N. Hart, Promises to Keep

All love that has not friendship for its base,/Is like a mansion built upon the sand.Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Upon the Sand

I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. Shall I not call God the Beautiful, who daily showeth himself so to me in his gifts?. … My friends have come to me unsought. The great God gave them to me.Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Friends,” in Emerson’s Essays

Here we are, you and I, and I hope a third, Christ, is in our midst. … For what more sublime can be said of friendship, what more true, what more profitable, than that it ought to, and is proved to, begin in Christ, continue in Christ, and be perfected in Christ?Aelred of Rievaulx, Spiritual Friendship

The holy passion of friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.Mark Twain, Pudd’nhead Wilson

Try to avoid making mistakes in friendship and we will have no friends at all.Gilbert C. Meilaender, Friendship: A Study in Theological Ethics

A friendship which can cease to be was never true friendship.Jerome, Letters, 3:6

It is more shameful to distrust one’s friends than to be deceived by them.Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims

The most fatal disease of friendship is gradual decay.Samuel Johnson, “Essays from the ‘Rambler,’ ‘Adventurer,’ and ‘Idler'”

Do not abandon old friends, for new ones cannot equal them. A new friend is like new wine; when it has aged, you can drink it with pleasure.Sirach 9:10 (NRSV)

It is easy enough to be friendly to one’s friends. But to befriend the one who regards himself as your enemy is the quintessence of true religion. The other is mere business.Mohandas K. Gandhi, Nonviolence in Peace and War

Copyright © 2001 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Related Elsewhere

Christianity Today sister publication Today’s Christian Woman and our parent site’s Singles channel both have areas on friendship. Leadership Journal, another Christianity Today sister publication, devoted its Summer 1996 issue to the theme of friendship and accountability.

Past Reflections columns include:

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Does God Know Your Next Move? Christopher A. Hall and John Sanders debate openness theology.

Cover Story

Does God Know Your Next Move?

Taxes Financial Warfare Club Under Legal Cloud

It's Called Junk Food for a Reason

Andy Griffith Is My Copilot

The Back Page | Philip Yancey: Replenishing the Inner Pastor

Armed Services: Navy Bias Charged

Black Methodists Criticize Race Overture

Ministry: New England Evangelicals Innovate and Grow

"Pornography: Libraries, ACLU Resist Internet Filtering"

Briefs: North America

"Investing: $158,000 Assessment Stirs Pastor's Wrath"

Civil Reactions | Stephen L. Carter: And the Word Turned Secular

Law: Fetal Harm Bill Moves to Senate

Mexico: A Peacemaker in Power

Briefs: The World

Religious Freedom Delegation Gets Cold Shoulder

Latin America: Pope Urges New Effort Against Sects

Pakistan: Stolen Daughter

Pakistan: Christian Principal Accused of Blasphemy

Awakening Liturgies

Cultural Savvy

Cathartic Prayers

Debt Relief Pledged

Wire Story

Sudan: Freedom Panel Alleges Genocide

Does God Know Your Next Move?

Does God Know Your Next Move?

Does God Know Your Next Move?

Does God Know Your Next Move?

Watchman on the Walls

Two Schools of Thought

When Business Aims for Miracles

How to Spell Debt Relief

Wire Story

Sex: Marriage Laws Embroil Legislatures

Private Debt: The Final Frontier

From Lay Pastor to President

A Real Survivor

Letters

A Criminal Proposal

Invalidating Valedictorians

Which Miracles Are Real?

Readers' Forum: What Are We For?

Andy Crouch: Generation Misinformation

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