90 Friendship Quotes Celebrating Best Friends

Looking to put a smile on your best friend’s face? These friendship quotes are sure to do the trick. Quotes about the meaning of friendship, funny sayings, and positive affirmations can go a long way toward showing how much you appreciate a good pal. Plus, some of these quotes even make for great birthday wishes for a best friend to go in a birthday card and accompany the perfect present.

After all, friends are one of the greatest treasures in life. Someone who is there for you in times of need, helps to lift you up when you are feeling down, and is there to help enjoy some of the most beautiful moments in life can do wonders for your mental health. Whether your go-to person is a friend you made as an adult or a longtime childhood friend, we know how important it is to nurture all relationships.

Luckily, these quotes can help you do just that by speaking to exactly what it means to love and be loved by a friend. Whether you’re looking for meaningful, serious life quotes to show them you care or a funny quote to share a laugh, there’s something here for everyone.

Ahead, check out the best hilarious, heartfelt, and inspiring quotes about friendship to share with your pals—lifelong and new.

Simple friendship quotes

“It’s not that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but it’s your best friends who are your diamonds.” —Gina Barreca
“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.” —Thomas Aquinas
“To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.” —Dr. Suess
“Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.” —G. Randolf
“Friendship is the golden thread that ties the heart of all the world.” —John Evelyn
“The ornament of a house is the friends who frequent it.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“A friend is one of the best things you can be and the greatest things you can have.” —Sarah Valdez
“Friends are the family you choose.” —Jess C. Scott
“In the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.” —Khalil Gibran
“A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have.” —Irish Proverb
“When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands.” —Maria Shriver
“Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.” —Ed Cunningham
“The greatest gift of life is friendship, and I have received it.” —Hubert H. Humphrey
“There are three things that grow more precious with age; old wood to burn, old books to read, and old friends to enjoy.” —Henry Ford
“True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart.” —Helen Keller
“Friendship is accepting a person with all their qualities—good and bad.” —Mohanlal

Funny friendship quotes

“There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate.” —Linda Grayson
“Tis the privilege of friendship to talk nonsense, and to have her nonsense respected.” —Charles Lamb
“Friendship is so weird…you just pick a human you’ve met and you’re like ‘Yep, I like this one’ and you just do stuff with them.” —Unknown
“You know what sucks about getting older? Your friends have known you for way too long. They’ve got too much on you.” —Nick Miller, New Girl
“We’ll be the old ladies causing trouble in the nursing home.” —Unknown
“She’s my friend because we both know what it’s like to have people be jealous of us.” —Cher, Clueless
“True friendship is when you walk into their house and your WiFi connects automatically.” —Unknown
“Friend is someone to share the last cookie with.” —Cookie Monster, Sesame Street
“There is nothing like puking with somebody to make you into old friends.” —Sylvia Plath
“A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked.” —Bernard Meltzer

Friendship quotes about loyalty

“Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.” —Oprah Winfrey
“I think if I’ve learned anything about friendship, it’s to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don’t walk away, don’t be distracted, don’t be too busy or tired, don’t take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff.” —Jon Katz
“A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” —Walter Winchell
“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
“There’s nothing like a really loyal, dependable, good friend. Nothing.” —Jennifer Aniston
“A friend knows the song in my heart and signs it to me when my memory fails.” —Donna Roberts
“We’re sisters; you’re my family. What is you, is me. There’s nothing that you could ever say to make me let go.” —Blair Waldorf, Gossip Girl
“Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest. It’s about who walked into your life, said, ‘I’m here for you,’ and proved it.” —Unknown
“Don’t walk behind me; I may not lead. Don’t walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend.” —Albert Camus
“Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.” —Oprah Winfrey
“Never leave a friend behind. Friends are all we have to get us through this life—and they are the only things from this world that we could hope to see in the next.” —Dean Koontz

Friendship quotes for old friends

“The best mirror is an old friend.” —George Herbert
“Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled.” —Ally Condie
“The only thing old about you is our friendship, which makes us ancient...” ―Nanette L. Avery
“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” —Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Age appears to be best in four things; old wood best to burn, old wine to drink, old friends to trust, and old authors to read.” —Francis Bacon
“You don’t have to have anything in common with people you’ve known since you were five. With old friends, you’ve got your whole life in common.” —Lyle Lovett
“Make new friends, but keep the old; Those are silver, these are gold.” —Joseph Parry
“We didn’t realize we were making memories. We just knew we were having fun.” —Winnie the Pooh

Heartwarming friendship quotes

“If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart. I’ll stay there forever.” —A.A. Milne
“The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” —Elisabeth Foley
“A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow.” —William Shakespeare
“If you live to be 100, I hope I live to be 100 minus one day, so I never have to live without you.” —Winnie the Pooh
“A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same.” —Elbert Hubbard
“A single rose can be my garden…a single friend, my world.” —Leo Buscaglia
“When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.” —Henri Nouwen
“Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” —Anais Nin
“Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” —Marcel Proust

Quotes describing the meaning of friendship

“Friendship is the only cement that will ever hold the world together.” —Woodrow Wilson
“Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything.” —Muhammad Ali
“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is no time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.” —Octavia Butler
“The love that comes from friendship is the underlying facet of a happy life.” —Chelsea Handler
“Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious.” —Thomas Aquinas
“And what is a friend? More than a father, more than a brother: a traveling companion, with him, you can conquer the impossible, even if you must lose it later. Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing.” —Elie Wiesel
“Friends are those rare people who ask how we are and then wait to hear the answer.” —Ed Cunningham
“Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil.” —Baltasar Gracian
“The language of friendship is not words but meanings.” —Henry David Thoreau
“A good friend is a connection to life—a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.” —Lois Wyse
“That’s when I realized what a true friend was. Someone who would always love you—the imperfect you, the confused you, the wrong you—because that is what people are supposed to do.” —R. J. L.

Uplifting friendship quotes

“Share your smile with the world. It’s a symbol of friendship and peace.” —Christie Brinkley
“Don’t make friends who you are comfortable with. Make friends who will force you to lever yourself up.” —Thomas J. Watson
“Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” —Amy Poehler
“Friends…they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.” —Henry David Thoreau
“I cannot even imagine where I would be today were it not for that handful of friends who have given me a heart full of joy. Let’s face it, friends make life a lot more fun.” —Charles R. Swindoll
“A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself.” —Heidi Wills
“Anything is possible when you have the right people there to support you.” —Misty Copeland
“A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.” —Arnold H. Glasgow
“Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of one another.” —Eustace Budgell

Friendship quotes for your closest friend

“Friends are people who know you really well and like you anyway.” —Greg Tamblyn
“The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing…not healing, not curing…that is a friend who cares.” —Henri Nouwen
“Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.” —Vincent Van Gogh
“The real test of friendship is: can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple?” —Eugene Kennedy
“A friend can tell you things you don’t want to tell yourself.” —Frances Ward Weller
“In everyone’s life, at some time, our inner fire goes out. It is then burst into flame by an encounter with another human being. We should all be thankful for those people who rekindle the inner spirit.” —Albert Schweitzer
“If you have one true friend you have more than your share.” —Thomas Fuller
“The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” —Elisabeth Foley
“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.” —David Tyson
“One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood.” —Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Quotes about how to be a good friend

“Be genuinely interested in everyone you meet and everyone you meet will be genuinely interested in you.” —Rasheed Ogunlaru
“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” —Maya Angelou
“There is a magnet in your heart that will attract true friends. That magnet is unselfishness, thinking of others first; when you learn to live for others, they will live for you.” —Paramahansa Yogananda
“Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over.” —Octavia Butler
“’Tis a great confidence in a friend to tell him your faults; greater to tell him his.” —Benjamin Franklin
“Come at once if convenient. If inconvenient, come all the same.” —Arthur Conan Doyle

Isabella Cavallo

Assistant Commerce Editor

Isabella (she/her) covers commerce and product-related content in the home, lifestyle, fitness, technology and beauty. She graduated from Binghamton University in 2022 with a bachelor’s degree in English: Literature & Rhetoric. Before joining GH, she was an editorial assistant at Prevention, where she covered health topics and celebrity news.

Shannen Zitz

Assistant Editor

Shannen Zitz is an Assistant Editor at Prevention, where she covers all things lifestyle, wellness, beauty, and relationships. Previously the Editorial Assistant at Prevention, she graduated from the State University of New York at Cortland with a bachelor's degree in English. If she’s not reading or writing, you can probably find her frequenting the skincare and makeup forums on Reddit or hogging the squat rack at the gym.