Two such as you with such a master speed, cannot be parted nor be swept away, from one another once you are agreed, that life is only life forevermore, together wing to wing and oar to oar.
Robert FrostRead
The nearest friends can go With anyone to death, comes so far short They might as well not try to go at all.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True friendship means being with someone through thick and thin, but just being there isn't enough if you can't truly connect.
In this quote, Robert Frost reflects on the nature of friendship and lifeβs ultimate journey. He suggests that while friends may accompany each other through life's struggles, merely attempting to stand by one another, without a deep, meaningful connection, results in an empty gesture. Friendship is portrayed as requiring genuine understanding and commitment, without which the effort to be 'there' feels inadequate.
Themes
FriendshipSupportConnectionCommitmentLife Journey
In practice
Example use cases
During a speech about the importance of authentic friendships at a community gathering.
More from Robert Frost
All quotes βYou have freedom when you're easy in your harness.
Robert FrostRead
God made a beauteous garden With lovely flowers strown, But one straight, narrow pathway That was not overgrown. And to this beauteous garden He brought mankind to live, And said "To you, my children, These lovely flowers I give. Prune ye my vines and fig trees, With care my flowers tend, But keep the pathway open Your home is at the end." God's Garden
Robert FrostRead
'Warm in December, cold in June, you say?' _x000D_ _x000D_ I don't suppose the water's changed at all. _x000D_ _x000D_ You and I know enough to know it's warm _x000D_ _x000D_ Compared with cold, and cold compared with warm. _x000D_ _x000D_ But all the fun's in how you say a thing.
Robert FrostRead
For, dear me, why abandon a belief, Merely because it ceases to be true, Cling to it long enough, and not a doubt, It will turn true again, for so it goes.
Robert FrostRead
The question that he frames in all but words is what to make of a diminished thing.
Robert FrostRead
Similar quotes
Martin is your best friend, isn't he?' a sweet and well-intentioned girl once said when both of us were present: it was the only time I ever felt awkward about this precious idea, which seemed somehow to risk diminishment if it were uttered aloud.
Christopher HitchensRead
A noble person attracts noble people, and knows how to hold on to them.
Johann Wolfgang Von GoetheRead
Go up close to your friend, but do not go over to him! We should also respect the enemy in our friend.
Friedrich NietzscheRead
Life is partly what we make it, and partly what it is made by the friends we choose.
Tennessee WilliamsRead
Of what shall we be proud of if we are not proud of our friends?
Robert Louis StevensonRead
I had eventually come to understand that friendship was a delicate, gradual process that mustnβt be rushed or seized upon but allowed and encouraged to take its course over time. I pictured it as a butterfly, simultaneously beautiful and fragile, that once afloat belonged to the air and any attempt to grab at it would only destroy it.
Daniel TammetRead