Friendship, like the immortality of the soul, is too good to be believed.
Interpretation
Friendship is incredibly valuable and hard to truly believe in its depth and beauty.
Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote suggests that the essence of friendship is so profound and enriching that it feels almost unbelievable, similar to the concept of the immortality of the soul. This reflection on friendship highlights its importance in our lives, conveying that such deep connections are rare and precious, making us question whether such goodness can truly exist in the world.
In practice
During a speech about relationships, this quote emphasizes the depth of true 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?
Now, Watson,β said Holmes, as a tall dog-cart dashed up through the gloom, throwing out two golden tunnels of yellow light from its side lanterns. βYouβll come with me, wonβt you?β βIf I can be of use.β βOh, a trusty comrade is always of use; and a chronicler still more so. My room at The Cedars is a double-bedded one.
I never meant to write about the experience of losing a good friend to breast cancer when I was going through it. But after it was over, I realized that although something deeply sad had happened, something truly beautiful also had.
Your corn is ripe today; mine will be so tomorrow. 'Tis profitable for us both, that I should labour with you today, and that you should aid me tomorrow.
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.
A blessed thing it is to have a friend; one human soul whom we can trust utterly; who knows the best and worst of us, and who loves us in spite of all our faults; who will speak the honest truth to us, while the world flatters us to our face, and laughs at us behind our back; who will give us counsel and reproof in a day of prosperity and self-conceit; but who, again, will comfort and encourage us in days of difficulty and sorrow, when the world leaves us alone to fight our own battle as we can.
Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions; they pass no criticisms.
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