Friendliness

It is always well to accept your own shortcomings with candor but to regard those of your friends with polite incredulity.

A smile costs nothing but gives much.  It enriches those who receive without making poorer those who give.  It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts forever.  None is so rich or mighty that he cannot get along without it and none is so poor that he cannot be made rich by it.  Yet a smile cannot be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, for it is something that is of no value to anyone until it is given away.  Some people are too tired to give you a smile.  Give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.

Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around.

A good motto is: Use friendliness but do not use your friends.

The best thing to give to your enemy is forgiveness; to an opponent, tolerance; to a friend, your heart; to your child, a good example; to a father, deference; to your mother, conduct that will make her proud of you; to yourself, respect; to all men, charity.

To know someone here or there with whom you can feel there is understanding in spite of distances or thoughts unexpressed - that can make of this earth a garden.

Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.

We do not so much need the help of our friends as the confidence of their help in need.