A friend, therefore, is a sort of paradox in nature. I who alone am, I who see nothing in nature whose existence I can affirm with equal evidence to my own, behold now the semblance of my being, in all its height, variety, and curiosity, reiterated in a foreign form; so that a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
Interpretation
A friend reflects our own existence and individuality in a unique way.
In this quote, Emerson suggests that a friend embodies a paradoxical relationship where one person can witness their own essence and complexity through another. It highlights the profound connection between friends, as each serves as a mirror revealing the nuances of one's identity and humanity, making friendship one of the greatest creations of nature.
In practice
In a speech about the value of companionship and understanding, this quote can be used to emphasize the depth of friendship.
It is plain that there is no separate essence called courage, no cup or cell in the brain, no vessel in the heart containing drops or atoms that make or give this virtue; but it is the right or healthy state of every man, when he is free to do that which is constitutional to him to do.
Few people have any next, they live from hand to mouth without a plan, and are always at the end of their line.
Men cease to interest us when we find their limitations
Tis the good reader that makes the good book; a good head cannot read amiss: in every book he finds passages which seem confidences or asides hidden from all else and unmistakeably meant for his ear.
The world belongs to the energetic.
Hast thou named all the birds without a gun?
You have to work hard at staying in contact with your friends so that the relationships will continue and live on... Friendships, along with love, make life worth living.
The true and not despairing Friend will address his Friend in some such terms as these. "I never asked thy leave to let me love thee,--I have a right. I love thee not as something private and personal, which is your own, but as something universal and worthy of love, which I have found. O, how I think of you! You are purely good, --you are infinitely good. I can trust you forever. I did not think that humanity was so rich. Give me an opportunity to live.
Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer.
The great effect of friendship is beneficence, yet by the first act of uncommon kindness it is endangered.
You should be nicer to him,' a schoolmate had once said to me of some awfully ill-favored boy. 'He has no friends.' This, I realized with a pang of pity that I can still remember, was only true as long as everybody agreed to it.
All things are in common among friends.
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