There are texts in which moral beauty is extremely rare. Sometimes we reflect on these essential issues in small steps. Sometimes we neglect them. Most of the time we forget them…or maybe we never manage to touch on them.

…..For me, friendships are opportunities where I try to exchange kindnesses, congratulations or simply modern impressions.

….For me, friendship means solidarity always strengthened in common principles and values. When this solidarity falters, when pride is stronger and this alchemy is out of balance, when the past is rewritten to become part of the present with other games and combinations then the friendship falls apart.

….For me, friendship is the biggest bet of a trust that cannot be shaken by any light breeze or any difficult test of destiny. On the other hand, when the sky clouds over and friends are slandered and insulted, you don’t wash your hands and you don’t join the group of fugitives. You don’t avoid the joy of those who smear. And if you manage to do it, it means that you have imitated that friendship.

 

«The ancient Greeks did not have gods of friendship, although they had the cult of friendship. How could this be explained? Gods and goddesses are capricious, jealous, impulsive, angry, abandon their proteges, strike, use people for their own benefit, elevate and debase them at will. You cannot trust them, you cannot rely on their help, even when they are on your side. If in the ancient Greek heaven friendship does not have a god, it happens because it is above whims and angers, above lustful desires, reward and revenge. There is no god of friendship because the gods are not serene enough to patronize it, they do not rise to its height.
Of the three kinds of friendship that Aristotle calls – the friendship of necessity, the one of pleasure and the «perfect, of people […] who wish each other well», only the latter deserves the name of friendship and endures. To wish the good for someone else means, in the latter case, to wish it, at the same time, for yourself.
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As the sand collects in the earthward lower cup of the hourglass of life, and man no longer expects anything from the moving tumult in its upper cup, friendship is valued more than love. Friendship is refuge, it is rest, love is a battlefield. (In addition, the only chance for love that would like to be saved would be to turn into friendship and get out from under the whims of Aphrodite and the envy of the gods.)
Friendship doesn’t make you suffer. If it makes you suffer, it’s not friendship.
Friendship does not exist without reciprocity and equality, regardless of the value, age, gender or qualities of each of the friends. The moment one feels above the other, there is no more friendship.

You cannot be kicked out of friendship. Friendship does not have its employment contract terminated.
Friendship cannot be interrupted or broken. If you break it, you admit that there was no friendship.
Friendship is not without complete sincerity: you don’t hide your opinions about the people around you, about what you’re going through or about your friend. If you have to hide something, it’s not friendship. But you don’t have to feel obliged to say «green-face» everything.
Friendship is for life. If it’s over, life is over, and even that doesn’t stop the friendship. It continues as long as at least one of the two lives and then passes by itself, like the ancient Greeks, into the story.
Friendship cannot be forbidden. If that happens, it’s not friendship, it’s hierarchy or administration.

Friendship has the right to speak. If this right is taken away, it is not friendship.
Friendship is like honey: it does not expire and has no guarantee period. If it expires, it’s counterfeit goods.
You are always happy when you see a friend again, after any time interval: minutes, hours or years. If you don’t enjoy it, it’s not friendship.

Friendship does not suspend judgment, but it is outside judgment, the credit given to the friend is unlimited.
Humor in friendship, as in life, is not excluded. But no condition sine qua non.
Don’t get caught up in the details of the other person’s body or gestures or their physical flaws in friendship. If they end up irritating you, it’s not friendship, it’s marriage.
Friendship has characteristics, not rules. Therefore, it cannot have any irregularities.

Friendship is not like gods, it is like God. He understands everything without explanation. If the explanation appears, it is not to explain, but to delight.
One can make mistakes in life. This does not disturb the friendship that is beyond mistake and forgiveness.
Friendship is more precious than love.
It has all these qualities, if it is friendship. If it doesn’t have them, it’s not friendship. Maybe it’s love.
True friendship saves itself. If it’s lost forever, it’s not friendship.»