All we can do is to make the best of our friends, love and cherish what is good in them, and keep out of the way what is bad.
Interpretation
We should appreciate and nurture the good qualities in our friends while avoiding their negative traits.
This quote by Thomas Jefferson emphasizes the importance of valuing and cherishing the positive aspects of our friendships, suggesting that we focus on the goodness in our friends and try to minimize the impact of their flaws. It highlights the notion that relationships are built on appreciation and understanding, and that recognizing both strengths and weaknesses is key to maintaining strong connections.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of companionship, one could cite this quote to emphasize valuing friends.
The firmness with which the (American) people have withstood the... abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false and to form a correct judgment between them.
I, place economy among the first & most important republican virtues, & public debt as the greatest of the dangers to be feared
βWe must make our choice between economy and liberty or confusion and servitude...If we run into such debts, we must be taxed in our meat and drink, in our necessities and comforts, in our labor and in our amusements...if we can prevent the government from wasting the labor of the people, under the pretense of caring for them, they will be happy.
Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance.
A nation, as a society, forms a moral person, and every member of it is personally responsible for his society.
Timid men prefer the calm of despotism to the tempestuous sea of liberty.
My Friend: Art thou abroad on this stormy night on thy journey of love, my friend? The sky groans like one in despair. I have no sleep tonight. Ever and again I open my door and look out on the darkness, my friend! I can see nothing before me. I wonder where lies thy path! By what dim shore of the ink-black river, by what far edge of the frowning forest, through what mazy depth of gloom art thou threading thy course to come to me, my friend?
Never forget the days I spent with you. Continue to be my friend, as you will always find me yours.
Friendship is born at that moment when one man says to another: "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself . . ."
I shall choose friends among men, but neither slaves nor masters. And I shall choose only such as please me, and them I shall love and respect, but neither command nor obey. And we shall join our hands when we wish, or walk alone when we so desire.
I remembered this one time that I never told anybody about. The time we were walking. Just the three of us. I was in the middle. I don't remember where we were walking to or where we were walking from. I just remember the season. I just remember walking between them and feeling for the first time that I belonged somewhere
It is important to have friends we can trust. But it is essential to trust the Lord, who never lets us down.
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