A companion loves some agreeable qualities which a man may possess, but a friend loves the man himself.
James BoswellRead
Friendship, "the wine of life," should, like a well-stocked cellar, be continually renewed.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Friendship should be cherished and nurtured over time, much like fine wine.
In this quote, James Boswell emphasizes the importance of friendship in life, comparing it to wine that enhances experiences. Just as a well-stocked cellar requires regular replenishment to maintain its value and quality, friendships also need ongoing effort and care to thrive and remain meaningful.
Themes
FriendshipLifeRenewalRelationshipsSupport
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the importance of relationships, you can quote Boswell to encourage your audience to invest in their friendships.
More from James Boswell
All quotes βThere is nothing worth the wear of winning, but laughter and the love of friends.
James BoswellRead
He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.
James BoswellRead
Wine makes a man better pleased with himself. I do not say that it makes him more pleasing to others. Sometimes it does. But the danger is, that while a man grows better pleased with himself, he may be growing less pleasing to others. Wine gives a man nothing. It neither gives him knowledge nor wit; it only animates a man, and enables him to bring out what a dread of the company has presented.
James BoswellRead
Similar quotes
God is not so wary as we, else He would give us no friends, lest we forget Him! The charms of the heaven in the bush are superseded, I fear, by the heaven in the hand, occasionally.
Emily DickinsonRead
The sincere friends of this world are as ship lights in the stormiest of nights.
Giotto Di BondoneRead
A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
All male friendships are essentially quixotic: they last only so long as each man is willing to polish the shaving-bowl helmet, climb on his donkey, and ride off after the other in pursuit of illusive glory and questionable adventure.
Michael ChabonRead
And if Sam considered himself lucky, Frodo knew he was more lucky himself; for there was not a hobbit in the Shire that was looked after with such care.
J. R. R. TolkienRead
The heart may think it knows better: the senses know that absence blots people out. We really have no absent friends. The friend becomes a traitor by breaking, however unwillingly or sadly, out of our own zone: a hard judgment is passed on him, for all the pleas of the heart.
Elizabeth BowenRead