--_La Fontaine_.

* * * * *

Friendship, love, and piety, ought to be handled with a sort of
mysterious secrecy; they ought to be spoken of only in the rare moments
of perfect confidence.

--_Novalis_.

* * * * *

Few men are calculated for that close connection which we distinguish by
the name of friendship, and we well know the difference between a friend
and an acquaintance.

--_Sterne_.

* * * * *

Friendship is the nearest thing we know to what religion is. God is
love. And to make religion akin to friendship is simply to give it the
highest expression conceivable by man.

--_Drummond_.

* * * * *

Friendship is the great chain of human society.