I don't need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better.
Interpretation
True friends remain consistent and supportive, regardless of changes in circumstances.
This quote by Plutarch emphasizes the importance of genuine friendship, suggesting that true friends should stand by each other through changes instead of simply conforming or agreeing out of convenience. The comparison to a shadow highlights that a superficial companion is not truly valuable, as they lack the depth and support that a real friend provides.
In practice
Using this quote in a speech about the qualities of true friendship.
Sometimes small incidents, rather than glorious exploits, give us the best evidence of character. So, as portrait painters are more exact in doing the face, where the character is revealed, than the rest of the body, I must be allowed to give my more particular attention to the marks of the souls of men.
It were better to have no opinion of God at all than such a one as is unworthy of him; for the one is only belief - the other contempt.
Come back with your shield - or on it
The richest soil, if uncultivated, produces the rankest weeds.
For the correct analogy for the mind is not a vessel that needs filling, but wood that needs igniting.
Our senses through ignorance of Reality, falsely tell us that what appears to be, is. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real
I could take away all the gold medals and everything, that was the biggest thing that sport has given me. Belonging into a community, but also being proud of who I was.
In meeting again after a separation, acquaintances ask after our outward life, friends after our inner life.
Friendship," said Christopher Robin, "is a very comforting thing to have.
One doesn't know, till one is a bit at odds with the world, how much one's friends who believe in one rather generously, mean to one.
Meeting Franklin Roosevelt was like opening your first bottle of champagne; knowing him was like drinking it.
When friends grow cold, and the converse of intimates languishes into vapid civility and commonplace, these only continue the unaltered countenance of happier days, and cheer us with that true friendship which never deceived hope, nor deserted sorrow.
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