For the surest friends are the auldest friends
And the maist o' mine hae left me.

There are kind hearts still, for friends to fill
And fools to take and break them;
But the nearest friends are the auldest friends
And the grave's the place to seek them.

--_Stevenson_.

* * * * *

God divided man into men that they might help each other.

--_Seneca_.

* * * * *

I sometimes hear my friends complain finely that I do not appreciate
their fineness. I shall not tell them whether I do or not. As if they
expected a vote of thanks for every fine thing which they uttered or
did! Who knows but it was finely appreciated? It may be that your
silence was the finer thing of the two.... In human intercourse the
tragedy begins, not when there is misunderstanding about words, but when
silence is not understood. Then there can never be an explanation.

--_Thoreau_.

* * * * *