I do then with my friends as I do with my books. I would have them where I can find them, but I seldom use them.
Interpretation
Friendship is valued for its availability, even if not frequently utilized.
In this quote, Emerson uses a comparison between friends and books to express the nature of his relationships. He appreciates having friends nearby and easily accessible but acknowledges that he does not engage with them often, highlighting a tendency to take friendships for granted while still valuing their presence in his life.
In practice
In a speech about maintaining connections, one could quote Emerson to emphasize the importance of having friends nearby.
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?
So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend: thy love ne'er alter, till they sweet life end
Today I know this: when it comes time to take stock, the most painful wound is that of broken friendships; and there is nothing more foolish than to sacrifice a friendship to politics.
Too few rejoice at a friend's good fortune.
Come, let us pity those who are better off than we are. Come, my friend, and remember that the rich have butlers and no friends, And we have friends and no butlers. (excerpt from 'The Garrett')
Hello, friends.' I've had fun with that expression to satisfy the cynics, but it comes from the heart, and I don't apologize for it. Like my dad - for whom I designed the expression during the 2002 PGA Championship, when he was suffering from Alzheimer's disease - I've never met a stranger.
I think that women definitely have a special bond as friends that is hard to describe to men, and we don't often see that portrayed narratively.
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