Friendship quotes, explained

Family ties are stronger than any other bond, so relatives should stand by each other first.

Latin for “You too, Brutus?” In Shakespeare's play these are Caesar's dying words when he sees his friend Brutus among his killers. The phrase now means shock at being betrayed by someone you trusted.

In Frost's poem, a farmer's neighbor repeats an old saying while they rebuild the stone wall between them. The speaker doubts it. The poem asks the question instead of answering it.

Cicero says that being grateful is the most important virtue and the source of the others, because people who remember what they owe are loyal, dutiful and kind.

Said, usually as a joke, when two people have the same idea at the same time. It flatters both of them.

The greatest love a person can show is to give up their life for others. Jesus says it at the Last Supper, the night before his death.

Donne, seriously ill and hearing a funeral bell, reflects that every person is part of humanity, so every death diminishes us all. The same passage ends with “for whom the bell tolls.”

The song asks whether old friends should be forgotten, and answers no. “Auld lang syne” means roughly “old long since,” or “the good old days,” and the singers drink a cup of kindness to them.

Everyone makes mistakes; forgiving them is what lifts us toward the divine. Pope wrote it to urge critics to be generous to struggling writers.

A promise of total loyalty: wherever you go, I go; your people will be my people, and your God my God.