Where would you be without your BFF?
Childhood friends. School friends. Neighborhood friends. College friends. Work friends. Best friends. Boyfriends. Girlfriends.
We work our entire lives building friendships. From preschool, where we all learn that “it takes a friend to make a friend,” through adulthood, where we mingle at bars and water coolers, we crave closeness with other human beings.
We just need to know that someone out there “gets us.”
Whether we have a small group of close friends or an expanded group of personalities, each of our friendships brings something new to our lives, inspiring us to see the world a totally different way, giving us a new shoulder to lean on, and a new cheerleader to root us on.
Friendships come in all sorts of forms: serious ones, like the college friend you discuss politics with, silly ones, like the squad you do Halloween with, chill ones, like your wine and Netflix buddy. Some friendships even turn into something more.
Each friendship offers something totally unique — and irreplaceable. Each friendship ultimately makes us who we are.
This is why we spend so much time cultivating these relationships and learning how to be a goodfriend. This is why we show up after breakups, at graduations, at weddings, and at funerals. This is why near or far, our friends hold a special place in our hearts forever.
We all know, a true friend is hard to find. So when you do find one, hang on tight! It also doesn’t hurt to let your best friends know every now and then just how much they mean to you. These friendship quotes perfectly describe the beauty of friendship.
So go ahead and share one with your sister from another mister or brother from another mother. (And maybe learn a few important lessons long the way about being a good friend.)
Here are 55 inspirational friendship quotes and memes to share with those funny, amazing people in your life who are special beyond compare.
1. “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
2. “Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes.”
—Henry David Thoreau
3. “No friendship is an accident.”
― O. Henry, Heart of the West
4. “A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have.”
— Irish Proverb
5. “I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light.”
6. “Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.”
7. “Sitting silently beside a friend who is hurting may be the best gift we can give.”
— Unknown
8. “Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.”
― Muhammad Ali
9. “Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.”
— Amy Poehler
10. “Dear George: Remember no man is a failure who has friends.”
— It’s a Wonderful Life
11. “A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.”
― William Shakespeare
12. “The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul.”
— Shanna Rodriguez
13. “Anybody can sympathise with the sufferings of a friend, but it requires a very fine nature to sympathise with a friend’s success.”
― Oscar Wilde
14. “Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.”
— Albert Camus
15. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
16. “It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but a great deal more to stand up to your friends.”
— Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone
17. “Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.”
― Aristotle
18. “Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest, it’s about who walked in to your life, said “I’m here for you,” and PROVED it.”
— Unknown
19. “There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.”
― Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar
20. “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
21. “A sweet friendship refreshes the soul.”
— Proverbs 27:9
22. “There’s not a word yet, for old friends who’ve just met.”
― Jim Henson, “I’m Going To Go Back There Someday”
23. “When a woman becomes her own best friend, life is easier.”
— Diane von Furstenburg
24. “There is nothing I wouldn’t do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves; it is not my nature.”
— Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey
25. “Only a true friend would be that truly honest.”
— Shrek
26. “Friendship is delicate as a glass, once broken it can be fixed but there will always be cracks.”
— WaqarWaqar Ahmed
27. “Be slow to fall into friendship, but when you are in, continue firm and constant.”
― Socrates
28. “True friends are like diamonds — bright, beautiful, valuable, and always in style.”
― Nicole Richie
29. “Some people go to priests. Others to poetry. I to my friends.”
— Virginia Woolfe
30. “I never had any friends later on like the ones I had when I was 12.”
— Stand by Me
31. “True friendship is never serene.”
— Marquise de Sevigne
32. “I get by with a little help from my friends.”
— The Beatles
33. “A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself — and especially to feel, or not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at any moment is fine with them. That’s what real love amounts to – letting a person be what he really is.”
― Jim Morrison
34. “An insincere and evil friend is more to be feared than a wild beast; a wild beast may wound your body, but an evil friend will wound your mind.”
— Buddha
35. “Friends should be like books, few, but hand-selected.”
― C.J. Langenhoven
36. “A strong friendship doesn’t need daily conversation or being together. As long as the relationship lives in the heart, true friends never part.”
— Anonymous
37. “We’ll be friend ’til we’re old and senile. … Then we’ll be new friends!”
— Anonymous
38. “A friend who understands your tears is much more valuable than a lot of friends who only know your smile.”
— Anonymous
39. “You have been my friend,” replied Charlotte. “That in itself is a tremendous thing.”
— E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web
40. “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.”
— Elizabeth Foley
41. “There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.”
― Linda Grayson
42. “A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself.”
— Heidi Wills
43. “Ooh you’re the best friend that I ever had
I’ve been with you such a long time
You’re my sunshine and I want you to know
That my feelings are true
I really love you
Oh you’re my best friend”
— Queen
44. “Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them.”
— Anna Taylor
45. “If you wanna find out who’s a true friend, screw up or go through a challenging time … then see who sticks around.”
— Karen Salmonsohn
46. “The best mirror is an old friend.”
― George Herbert
47. “Some souls just understand each other upon meeting.”
— N.R. Hart
48. “A true friend is someone who will always love you — the imperfect, the confused, the wrong you — because that is what people are supposed to do.”
— R. J. L.
49. “The only way to have a friend is to be one.”
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
50. “We’ll be friends forever, won’t we, Pooh?” Asked Piglet. “Even longer,” Pooh answered.”
— Winnie The Pooh
51. “You’ve got a friend in me.”
— Toy Story
52. “A friend to all is a friend to none.”
― Aristotle
53. “Friends are medicine for a wounded heart, and vitamins for a hopeful soul.”
— Steve Maraboli
54. “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”
— Martin Luther King Jr.
55. “In my friend, I find a second self.”
— Isabel Norton
