Fire and Knowledge

“If I had to choose between betraying my country and betraying my friend, I hope I should have the guts to betray my country.”

–E.M. Forster quoted by Joseph Epstein, Friendship (2006), p. 80

In a highly child-centered society, where above all “attention must be paid” to children, friendship cannot hope to compete.

–Joseph Epstein, Friendship (2006), p. 65

Cicero says, truly, that “most people unreasonably … want such a friend as they are unable to be themselves, and expect from their friends what they do not themselves give.”

–Joseph Epstein, Friendship (2006), p. 63

“However rare true love may be, it is less so than true friendship.”

–La Rochefoucauld, quoted by Joseph Epstein, Friendship (2006), p. 55

[F]riendship is affection, variously based on common interests, a common past, common values, and, alas, sometimes common enemies, in each case leading to delight and contentment in one another’s company.

–Joseph Epstein, Friendship (2006), p. 21

I sometimes felt I was the perfect customer for a much needed but never produced Hallmark card that would read “We’ve been friends for a very long time,” followed on the inside by “What do you say we stop?”

–Joseph Epstein, Friendship (2006), p. 17

Anyone I regard with attention easily imprints on me something of himself. What I consider, I usurp: a foolish countenance, an unpleasant grimace, a ridiculous way of speaking. Vices even more: once they prick me, the stick to me and will not go away without shaking.

–Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592), “On Some Verses of Virgil” in The Art of the Personal Essay by Phillip Lopate (1994), p. 92

Walking and talking are two very great pleasures, but it is a mistake to combine them. Our own noise blots out the sounds and silences of the outdoor world; and talking leads almost inevitably to smoking, and then farewell to nature as far as one of our sense is concerned.

–C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy (1955), p. 142