Let’s talk about what friendship is from some sayings, from which we can have a better understanding of it, hopefully. Ralph Waldo Emerson told us, “Friendship is an essential ingredient in the making of a healthful, rewarding life.” Friends take up a large portion in our life, and I think that we need understand the importance of friendship to us, and we should cherish the friendship that we have, for it is an “essential ingredient” in our life. The British writer, Charles Caleb Colton, said, “True friendship is like sound health .The value of it is seldom known until it is lost.” He reminded us to cherish our friendship with the other friends, and not to regret when it is lost. What vivid comparison it is!

How to make the friendship between our friends and us lasting? “Two persons cannot long be friends if they cannot forgive each other’s little failings,” said Jean de La Bruyere, a French moralist. Don’t you think so? Socrates, an ancient Greek philosopher, put it like this, “Don’t try to win a friend by presenting gifts. You should instead contribute your sincere love and learn how to win others “heart through appropriate ways.” What we learn from it is that we should nourish the friendship between our friends and us with our love. Also, we should know how to make friends in proper ways. That is really important, right? “Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.” This is the suggestion from Benjamin Franklin. True, we shouldn”t choose our friend hastily. Since friendship is very important and valuable in our life, I don’t think that we can pick it at any place. We should know the persons that we want to make friends with, and gradually build up mutual understanding and trust with each other. It cannot be done in a day.

When the trust is built up, we should try to cultivate it. “Because friendships enhance our lives, it is important to cultivate them.” said Robert Louis Stevenson, a British novelist and poet. Also, Emerson told us that betraying a trust is a very quick and painful way to terminate a friendship. Therefore, there is no reason for us to destroy the trust between our friends and us to ruin the friendship that we have. Emerson also said, “Some components of a thriving friendship are honesty, naturalness, thoughtfulness, some common interests.” If we can follow his suggestion, I think that we will have the trust as the bridge between us and t our friends.

There are, also, some more sayings on friendship that I want to share with you in the following:

1. “A bosom friend afar brings a distant land near.” It tells us that no matter how far we are apart with our friends, so long as he or she is a bosom friend, it makes the distance between us near. I totally agree with it. It is a treasure to have a bosom friend, no matter how far away he or she lives from us. I always feel time flying when I talk with a bosom friend of mine on line. It makes the distance and time much shorter.
2.  “A brother may not be a friend, but a friend will always be a brother.” This is true. We have some brothers and sisters, but not of all us can be good friends. However, when we talk with our good friends, we feel that they are our brothers and sisters. It is always the case.
3. “Friendship is always the union of a part of one mind with a part of another; people are friends in spots.” How do you think of this saying? Common interests act as the bridge between our friends and us. If we like playing tennis, we will have some friends in this circle, right? True friends are heart-to-heart friends.
4. “Friendship is like a plant of slow growth.” This one is like the one from Benjamin Franklin: “Be slow in choosing a friend, slower in changing.” Another with the similar meaning is “a man knows his companion in a long journey”. These sayings tell us that we should make friends with care, and it takes a long time for us to know each other.
5. “Be true to your word, your work, and your friend.” We should be honest with our friends, and only in this way can we gain a true friendship. Cheating with each other never leads to true friendship. When we promise to a friend that we want to so something for them, we will do it with all our efforts. Keeping promises to our friends is also important.

There are many more for us to learn from the saying. I think, with the sayings I talked about in the above, you can understand the true meaning of friendship better. I will end this piece with the saying by Emerson: “With close friends in their lives, people develop courage and positive attitudes. Teenagers have the moral support to assert their individuality; the elderly approach their advanced years with optimism and an interest in life. ”

Dear readers, try to make some good friends in your life, and cherish the friendship that you have, for it is very important to your life – a treasure that cannot be bought by money!