Never promise more than you can perform.
Publilius SyrusRead
Treat your friend as if he might become an enemy.
Interpretation
Be mindful of how you treat your friends, as their loyalty can change.
This quote suggests that one should treat their friends with a degree of caution and respect, acknowledging that relationships can evolve over time. It reflects the idea that even those who are close to us can become adversaries under certain circumstances, highlighting the importance of being considerate and maintaining healthy boundaries in friendships.
In practice
In a speech about the dynamics of friendship at a community event.
Never promise more than you can perform.
Pain forces even the innocent to lie.
In a heated argument we are apt to lose sight of the truth.
Admonish your friends privately, but praise them openly.
What a tragedy is help where it harms what it supports!
The miser is as much in want of what he has as of what he has not.
I think they ought to know. You do them a disservice by not confiding something this important to them.β βI didnβt want ββ ββ to worry or frighten them?β said Dumbledore, surveying Harry over the top of his half-moon spectacles. βOr perhaps, to confess that you yourself are worried and frightened? You need your friends, Harry. As you so rightly said, Sirius would not have wanted you to shut yourself away.
It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.
Whatever will happen will happen, but choose your companions with care. Choose them because you like to look at them and you like the sound of their voices, and they have profound secrets in them that you wish to know. In other words, choose them because you love them. Otherwise you will not be able to bear their company for very long.
Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.
You have been my friend. That in itself is a tremendous thing. I wove my webs for you because I liked you. After all, what's a life, anyway? We're born, we live a little while, we die. A spider's life can't help being something of a mess, with all this trapping and eating flies. By helping you, perhaps I was trying to lift up my life a trifle. Heaven knows anyone's life can stand a little of that.
With another shock of excitement, Harry saw Sirius give James the thumbs-up. Sirius was lounging in his chair at his ease, tilting it back on two legs. He was very good-looking, his dark hair fell into his eyes with a sort of casual elegance neither James's nor Harry's could ever have achieved, and a girl sitting behind him was eyeing him hopefully, though he didn't seem to have noticed.
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