Bruce by Albert Payson Terhune

TO MY TEN BEST FRIENDS:

Who are far wiser in their way and far better in every way, than
I; and yet who have not the wisdom to know it

Who do not merely think I am perfect, but who are calmly and
permanently convinced of my perfection;--and this in spite of
fifty disillusions a day

Who are frantically happy at my coming and bitterly woebegone in
my absence

Who never bore me and never are bored by me

Who never talk about themselves and who always listen with
rapturous interest to anything I may say

Who, having no conventional standards, have no respectability;
and who, having no conventional consciences, have no sins

Who teach me finer lessons in loyalty, in patience, in true
courtesy, in unselfishness, in divine forgiveness, in pluck and
in abiding good spirits than do all the books I have ever read
and all the other models I have studied

Who have not deigned to waste time and eyesight in reading a word
of mine and who will not bother to read this verbose tribute to
themselves