Thou dost conspire against thy friend, Iago,
If thou but think’st him wrong’d, and mak’st his ear
A stranger
to thy thoughts.
Shakespeare.—Othello, Act III. Scene 3. (The Moor.)
Eternal blessings crown my earliest friend,
And round his dwelling guardian saints attend.
Goldsmith.—The Traveller, Line 11.
To virtue only and her friends, a friend.
Pope.—Book II. Sat. I. To Fortescue, Line 121.
The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not
dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new-hatched, unfledged comrade.
Shakespeare.—Hamlet, Act I. Scene 3. (Polonius to Laertes.)
I am not of that feather, to shake off
My friend when he must need me. I do know him,
A gentleman that
well deserves a help,
Which he shall have: I’ll pay the debt and free him.
Shakespeare.—Timon of Athens, Act I. Scene I. (Timon to the servant of Ventidius.)
What need we have any friends, if we should ne’er have need of them?
Shakespeare.—Timon of Athens, Act I. Scene 2. (Timon.)
An open foe may prove a curse,
But a pretended friend is worse.
Gay.—Fable XVII. Line 33.