135 Friendship Quotes: Best Friend Quotes That Show the True Meaning of Friendship

Even though we sometimes forget, having a best friend is truly a privilege, and should be counted among life’s greatest gifts. The sweet friendship you can receive from a bestie is rare. If you have one, they should be cherished!

True friends are there through the best and the worst of times. They help us grow and when we do, they are genuinely happy for our successes. They lift us up when we’re feeling down, listen to our nonsense, and give us that figurative slap in the face before we make a terrible mistake.

A loyal friend is like a guardian angel — the family you choose — and time and distance will never harm the bond you share. Sweet friendship refreshes our lives, and only your real friends always seem to know just the way to pick you up. So enjoy the sweet friendship quotes below, find the perfect friendship quote for your special someone, and send it to the person that deserves it the most!

Best Friend Quotes: Sayings for a True Friend

Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one - C.S. Lewis (more C.S. Lewis quotes)

Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together. - Woodrow T. Wilson

A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. - Walter Winchell

Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light - Helen Keller (more Helen Keller quotes)

You can always tell a real friend: when you’ve made a fool of yourself he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job. - Laurence J. Peter

Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend. - Albert Camus (more Albert Camus quotes)

A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down. - Arnold H. Glasgow

True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable. - David Tyson

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. - Oprah Winfrey (more Oprah Winfrey quotes)

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them - Ralph Waldo Emerson

There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met. - Jim Henson

One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention. - Clifton Fadiman

A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails. - Donna Roberts

Keep away from those who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you believe that you too can become great. - Mark Twain (more Mark Twain quotes)

Of all possessions a friend is the most precious. - Herodotus

True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity, before it is entitled to the appellation. - George Washington

Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected. - Charles Lamb

Anybody can sympathize with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathize with a friend’s success. - Oscar Wilde (more Oscar Wilde quotes)

The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart. - Elisabeth Foley

A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked. - Bernard Meltzer

Real friendship, like real poetry, is extremely rare – and precious as a pearl. - Tahar Ben Jelloun

If it’s very painful for you to criticize your friends — you’re safe in doing it. But if you take the slightest pleasure in it, that’s the time to hold your tongue. - Alice Duer Miller

The best time to make friends is before you need them. - Ethel Barrymore

Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. - Eleanor Roosevelt (more Eleanor Roosevelt quotes)

The love that comes from friendship is the underlying facet of a happy life. - Chelsea Handler

If you live to be a hundred, I hope I live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you. - Winnie the Pooh (more Winnie the Pooh quotes)

Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing. - Elie Wiesel

There are three things that grow more precious with age; old wood to burn, old books to read, and old friends to enjoy. - Henry Ford

A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same. - Elbert Hubbard

Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life—and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next. - Dean Koontz

They were beautiful shells, as white as the surf in the sea. When you held one up to your ear you could hear the sound of your best friend talking to you, even if she was a thousand miles away.  - Alice Hoffman

A true best friend may get you into trouble, but they will always be there to pull you out of it too.  - Kaylee Stepkoski

Sea sisters, Susa had called them once. Two pearls formed in the same oyster. - Samantha Shannon

When the best friends come together, the shining spirit of solidarity replaces the brightest star Sirius!  - Mehmet Murat ildan

Best friends are people hard to find, difficult to be, and impossible to live without. They are the people you get along with so easily in the journey called life.  - Khushi Parwal

The difference between your friend and your best friend is that your friend asks, ‘Are you are ok?’ and your best friend asks, ‘Do you want to talk about it?’ - Savania China

Some acquaintances become friends, but again these come and go with only a few remaining consistent. However, occasionally you will meet someone that changes who you are and who you will become. - Emily Williams

You can’t hate your best friend for taking opportunities he’d been given. That would be the worst sort of hate, wouldn’t it? Because it would mean you hate yourself, too.  - Craig Davidson

Life’s a battlefield, and we remain loyal to those who fight for us; those who’d die for us. - Crystal Woods

Best friends are those people who reveal to you what is wonderful inside of you, and you can all still laugh together. - Debasish Mridha

What do you say to your best friend when you stand at the gates of the gates of hell? Nothing. If it’s your best friend, she already knows. - Eliza Crewe

Short Friendship Quotes for True Friends

Sometimes we don’t need a lot of words to express our appreciation towards our closest friends. In some cases, all you need is a warm and tender hand to hold during difficulties. Undoubtedly, your actions will speak louder than any long, cheesy quote. 

Ten minutes with a genuine friend is better than years spent with anyone less. - Crystal Woods

A true best friend loves you even when it seems like you’ve gone off the deep end.  - Liz Fenton

A friend is not the shadow that mimics you, but the one who casts all shadows away. - Shannon L. Alder

There is a reason why you are my best friend. Destiny.  - Almira Bastari

Life was meant for good friends and great adventures. - Unknown

Awards become corroded. Friends gather no dust. - Jesse Owens

Just because I’m not there, doesn’t mean I’m not here for you. - Jacquelyn Middleton

Friendship is not something that you seek but something that finds you.  - Mokokoma Mokhonoana

There are friends, there is family, and then there are friends that become family. - Unknown

Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm & constant. - Socrates

There’s nothing like a really loyal, dependable, good friend. Nothing. - Jennifer Aniston (more Jennifer Aniston quotes)

That was our friendship: equal parts irritation and cooperation.  - Ransom Riggs

The best friends are made in childhood when we have no ulterior motives.  - Tapan Ghosh

True friends are always together in spirit. - L.M. Montgomery (more Lucy Maud Montgomery quotes)

It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. - Marlene Dietrich

Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there. - Unknown

A good friend is like a four-leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have. - Irish Proverb

There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. - Jane Austen (more jane austen quotes)

Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher. - Oprah Winfrey

The only way to have a friend is to be one. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer. - Ed Cunningham

There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. - Linda Grayson

Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world. - John Evelyn

Rare as is true love, true friendship is rarer. - Jean de la Fontaine

Cute and Sweet Quotes about Friendship

A good friend is someone that is like your chosen family. That friend is someone that makes such a beautiful impact in your life, you wouldn’t know what you would do without them. A loyal friend laughs at your jokes when you’re not necessarily funny, and a friend represents comfort in a tough world. The truly great friends are those that we can rely on, and who will not ask for anything in return.

Anyone can have a friend, but the one that would walk in a storm to find you is all you will ever need.  - Shannon L. Alder

You can count on me like one, two, three/ I’ll be there/ And I know when I need it, I can count on you like four, three, two/ And you’ll be there/ ‘Cause that’s what friends are supposed to do, oh, yeah! - Bruno Mars

Friends are a strange, volatile, contradictory, yet sticky phenomenon. They are made, crafted, shaped, molded, created by focused effort and intent. And yet, true friendship, once recognized, in its essence is effortless. - Vera Nazarian

That was the thing about best friends. Like sisters and mothers, they could piss you off and make you cry and break your heart, but in the end, when the chips were down, they were there, making you laugh even in your darkest hours.  - Kristen Hannah

Because with true friends, no one is keeping score. But it still feels good to repay them – even in the tiniest increments.  - Emery Lord

I was so sure we’d be together ten years from then, […], with the same bond as ever. We said lofty things like friends forever, that we’d be there at each other’s weddings, even though we were a thousand miles apart.  - Lily Seabrooke

Senses of humor define people, as factions, deeper rooted than religious or political opinions. When carrying out everyday tasks, opinions are rather easy to set aside, but those whom a person shares a sense of humor with are his closest friends. They are always there to make the biggest influence.  - Criss Jami

A good friend knows all your best stories. A best friend has lived them with you.  - Unknown

A true friend is one you can go extended periods without seeing or talking to, yet the moment that you are back in touch, it’s like no time has passed at all.  - Ellie Wade

Now she hesitated, wondering whether she dare do what she wanted… but surely, if they were best friends, it was all right?  - Robert Galbraith

True friends are like diamonds – bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style.  - Nicole Richie

One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. - Seneca

What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.  - Aristotle (more aristotle quotes)

True friendship is trading photos from toilets. It’s a willingness to be vulnerable and stupid and irreverent in a way that other people can’t accept and that you can’t accept from other people.  - Mike Wehner

We’ll be friends until we’re old and senile… and then we can be ‘new’ friends! - Unknown

In youth we learn; in age, we understand. - Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach

Best friends are the people you can do anything and nothing with and still have the best time.  - Unknown

You guys are so much alike it’s scary. I mean, either you would’ve been best friends or you would’ve strangled each other.  - Rick Riordan

Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you. - Misty Copeland

Friendship isn’t a big thing. It’s a million little things.  - Unknown

Friends are people who know you really well and like you anyway.  - Unknown

But it was in the nearly silent times that the real strength of their bond was evident. A friend who understands everything without being told is the rarest and best kind of friend.  - William Joyce

I don’t have a ton of good friends, but you’re one of the best.  - Lindsey Ouimet

I really want us to grow old together, you know? Go through all the typical life stuff together, even if that means we can only e-mail each other once a week because you moved to the middle of nowhere in Nebraska with your ten kids, and I’m still California because it’s amazing.  - Claire Kann

Sometimes a friend is most important, for friends are always there to laugh, cry, travel, see, hide, and feel with the other person. They will always be there. That is the measure of a true person: being a friend. It’s so much more than you think.  - Sophia Braun

Loyal friends have your back. And the ones that don’t, can watch you from behind.  - Steven Cuoco

The interesting thing I’ve learned about best friends is that you can have more than one. I have two. One I love with passion, the other I love with complete affection. - April White

Some might wonder that the two men should consider themselves to be old friends having only known each other for four years; but the tenure of friendships has never been governed by the passage of time.  - Amor Towles

Anyone can become your best friend when you spend time together and share your feelings about life. However, not every best friend can free you from yourself. This is when you reconsider the word ‘best’ and decide to expand your circle to include others.  - Shannon L. Alder

You listen to me, you daft cow. You are not boring. If you were, we wouldn’t be friends. You’re funny and clever and, yes ,okay, you’re a bit of a dingbat sometimes but that doesn’t make you boring. The fact that we never know what’ll come out of your mouth actually makes you interesting. Now, that’s the end of that.  - Michele Gorman

I swear my best friend is so fine. I see her every day after work and I’m always like, ‘she doesn’t even have to try!’ She’s that perfect!  - Lionel Suggs

I loved her like a sister and we’d known each other since we were babies, but on some level, you couldn’t have found two peas in the same pod that were so completely different. It was almost like opening the pod and finding a pea and a piece of corn.  - Erica Larsen

Your job won’t take care of you when you’ll be sailing through loneliness or going through a tragedy in life. Your friends will. Make good friends and stay in touch.  - Chanda Kaushik

‘Well, I don’t want to complain,’ Apple began. ‘Oh, go ahead and complain. That’s why you have a best friend forever after.’  - Shannon Hale