Friendship (n.) means having everything in common — so friends, at least, cannot quarrel over which of them is richer.
Friendship (n.) is worth more than cleverness: better to be ridiculous and a friend than clever and an enemy.
Friendship (n.) is agreement — and agreement about numbers is given by arithmetic, to cities, to citizens, and to each person with himself.
Friendship (n.) is likeness: the old and the wise say a friend is above all the one who is like you.
Friendship (n.) means belonging to each other: a lover desires someone only if he somehow belongs to him in soul, character or habit.
Friendship (n.) is easy to have and hard to define: Socrates and the boys call themselves friends, yet cannot say what a friend is.
Friendship (n.) vanishes wherever labor is divided, if friendship means agreement: a husband cannot agree with his wife about weaving he does not understand.
Friendship (n.) is never tasted by the tyrannical nature: always master to one man or slave to another, it knows neither freedom nor true friendship.
Friendship (n.) needs partnership, so the man who lives like a marauder, filling his appetites without end, can be dear to no man and to no god.
Friendship (n.) is born of the bad: a healthy body has no use for a doctor; the sick one loves medicine because of disease.