Quotes4study

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

I love everything that 's old: old friends, old times, old manners, old books, old wine.

OLIVER GOLDSMITH. 1728-1774.     _She Stoops to Conquer. Act i._

>Old friends are best.= _King James I., as he slipt on his old shoes._

Unknown

Alonso of Aragon was wont to say in commendation of age, that 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. 1561-1626.     _Apothegms. No. 97._

Old wood to burn, old books to read, old wine to drink, and old friends to converse with.

_Alphonso of Castile._

I love everything that's old--old friends, old tunes, old manners, old books, old wine.

_Goldsmith._

Ever since the end of World War II, when antibiotics arrived like jingle-clad, ultramodern cleaning products, we’ve been swept up in antigerm warfare. But in a recent article published in Archives of General Psychiatry, the Emory University neuroscientist Charles Raison and his colleagues say there’s mounting evidence that our ultraclean, polished-chrome, Lysoled modern world holds the key to today’s higher rates of depression, especially among young people. Loss of our ancient bond with microorganisms in gut, skin, food, and soil plays an important role, because without them we’re not privy to the good bacteria our immune system once counted on to fend off inflammation. “Since ancient times,” Raison says, “benign microorganisms, sometimes referred to as ‘old friends,’ have taught the immune system how to tolerate other harmless microorganisms, and in the process reduce inflammatory responses that have been linked to most modern illnesses, from cancer to depression.” He raises the question of “whether we should encourage measured reexposure to benign environmental microorganisms

Diane Ackerman

Old wood to burn! Old wine to drink! Old friends to trust! Old authors to read!

Alfonso X of Castile

Certain defects are necessary to the existence of the individual. It would be painful to us if our old friends laid aside certain peculiarities.

_Goethe._

Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

Bit by bit, nevertheless, it comes over us that we shall never again hear the laughter of our friend, that this one garden is forever locked against us. And at that moment begins our true mourning, which, though it may not be rending, is yet a little bitter. For nothing, in truth, can replace that companion. Old friends cannot be created out of hand. Nothing can match the treasure of common memories, of trials endured together, of quarrels and reconciliations and generous emotions. It is idle, having planted an acorn in the morning, to expect that afternoon to sit in the shade of the oak.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Keep to your old friends--your new friends will not be so constant.

John Wortabet     Arabian Wisdom

>Old friends are best. King James used to call for his old shoes; they were easiest for his feet.

JOHN SELDEN. 1584-1654.     _Table Talk. Friends._

>Old friends burn dim, like lamps in noisome air; / Love them for what they are; nor love them less; / Because to thee they are not what they were.

_Coleridge._

No one likes us.

I don't know why.

We may not be perfect,            We give them money,

But heaven knows we try.        But are they grateful?

But all around,                No, they're spiteful,

Even our old friends put us down.    And they're hateful.

Let's drop the big one,            They don't respect us,

And see what happens.            So let's surprise them

                    We'll drop the big one,

                    And pulverize 'em.

Asia's crowded,

Europe's too old,

Africa is far too hot,            We'll save Australia.

And Canada's too cold.            Don't wanna hurt no kangaroos.

And South America stole our name    We'll build an All-American amusement

Let's drop the big one,                park there--

There'll be no one left to blame us.    They got surfin', too!

Boom! goes London,

And Boom! Paree.

More room for you,            Oh, how peaceful it'll be!

And more room for me,            We'll set everybody free!

And every city,                You'll wear a Japanese kimono, babe;

The whole world round,            There'll be Italian shoes for me!

Will just be another American town.    They all hate us anyhow,

                    So, let's drop the big one now.

                    Let's drop the big one now!

        -- Randy Newman, "Drop the Big One"

Fortune Cookie

Good day to let down old friends who need help.

Fortune Cookie

Browder told a Russian lawyer, Sergey Magnitsky, who worked for a Moscow-based law firm called Firestone and Duncan, to follow the trail. It turned out the investment companies were being illegally signed over by the cops to petty criminals, who would then ask for tax rebates on the companies worth hundreds of millions of dollars, which were then granted by corrupt tax officials, signed off on by the same cops who had taken the documents in the first place, and wired to two banks owned by a convicted fraudster, an old<b> friend of the aforementioned cops and tax officials. Officially the tax officials and cops only earned a few thousand a year, but they had property worth hundreds of thousands, drove Porsches, and went on shopping trips to Harrods in London. And this was happening year after year. The biggest tax fraud scheme in history. Magnitsky thought he had caught a few bad apples.

Peter Pomerantsev

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.

OLD TESTAMENT.     _Proverbs xxvii. 17._

~Indigestion.~--Old<b> friendships are destroyed by toasted cheese, and hard salted meat has led to suicide. Unpleasant feelings of the body produce correspondent sensations in the mind, and a great scene of wretchedness is sketched out by a morsel of indigestible and misguided food.--_Sydney Smith._

Maturin M. Ballou     Pearls of Thought

Two old men, who had been friends in early youth, met after an interval of many years. A cordial greeting ensued, and then one of them asked the other: "How old are you now?" He said: "Thank God, I am in good health." "Are you well-off in worldly goods?" "Thank God, I am in debt to no man." "Have you any special trouble of mind?" "Thank God, I have no young children." "Have you any enemies?" "Thank God, I have no near relations."

John Wortabet     Arabian Wisdom

Loneliness is an old<b> friend standing beside you in the mirror, looking you in the eye, challenging you to live your life without it

Tahereh Mafi

God keeps a school for His children here on earth and one of His best teachers is Disappointment. My friend, when you and I reach our Father's house, we shall look back and see that the sharp-voiced, rough; visaged teacher, Disappointment, was one of the best guides to train us for it. He gave us hard lessons; he often used the rod; he often led us into thorny paths; he sometimes stripped off a load of luxuries; but that only made us travel the freer and the faster on our heavenward way. He sometimes led us down into the valley of the death-shadow; but never did the promises read so sweetly as when spelled out by the eye of faith in that very valley. Nowhere did he lead us so often, or teach us such sacred lessons, as at the cross of Christ. Dear, old, rough-handed teacher! We will build a monument to thee yet, and crown it with garlands, and inscribe on it: _Blessed be the memory of Disappointment!_--_Theodore Cuyler._

Various     Thoughts for the Quiet Hour

May we, or may we not, interpret, as students of language, and particularly as students of Oriental languages, the language of the Old Testament as a primitive and as an Oriental language? May we, or may we not, as true believers, see through the veil which human language always throws over the most sacred mysteries of the soul, and instead of dragging the sublimity of Abraham's trial and Abraham's faith down to the level of a merely preternatural event, recognise in it the real trial of a human soul, the real faith of the friend of God, a faith without stormwinds, without earthquakes and fires, a faith in the still small voice of God?

Friedrich Max Müller     Thoughts on Life and Religion

"Why, when I found myself utterly destitute, I thought my old friends would, perhaps, assist me. So I went to Danglars, who would not even receive me. I called on Fernand, who sent me a hundred francs by his valet-de-chambre."

Alexandre Dumas, Pere     The Count of Monte Cristo

We cannot part with our friends. We cannot let our angels go. We do not see that they only go out that archangels may come in. We are idolaters of the old. We do not believe in the richness of the soul, in its proper eternity and omnipresence.

_Emerson._

Novos amicos dum paras, veteres cole=--While you seek new friendships, take care to cultivate the old.

Unknown

The best mirror is an old<b> friend.

George Herbert

Scrooge was better than his word. … He became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him. He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!

Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol (first published on 19 December 1843, but mistakenly suggested for this date

It is a maxim of old that among themselves all things are common to friends.

TERENCE. 185-159 B. C.     _Adelphoe. Act v. Sc. 3, 18._ (_803._)

This day is call'd — the feast of Crispian: He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd, And rouse him at the name of Crispian. He that outlives this day, and sees old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends, And say, "To-morrow is Saint Crispian;" Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars, And say, "These wounds I had on Crispin's day." Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot, But he'll remember, with advantages, What feats he did that day. Then shall our names, Familiar in his mouth as household words, — Harry the King, Bedford, and Exeter, Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester, Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd. This story shall the good man teach his son; And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by From this day to the ending of the world, But we in it shall be remember'd, — We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. For he to-day that sheds his blood with me, Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile, This day shall gentle his condition: And gentlemen in England, now a-bed, Shall think themselves accurs'd, they were not here, And hold their manhoods cheap, whiles any speaks, That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day. King Henry V as portrayed in Henry V by

William Shakespeare

He declared with unusual warmth that he would never forgive himself for having travelled about in the central provinces during these last six months without having hunted up his two old friends.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Idiot

He that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.

OLD TESTAMENT.     _Proverbs xvii. 9._

It was getting late when the party arrived at Pavlofsk, but several people called to see the prince, and assembled in the verandah. Gania was the first to arrive. He had grown so pale and thin that the prince could hardly recognize him. Then came Varia and Ptitsin, who were rusticating in the neighbourhood. As to General Ivolgin, he scarcely budged from Lebedeff's house, and seemed to have moved to Pavlofsk with him. Lebedeff did his best to keep Ardalion Alexandrovitch by him, and to prevent him from invading the prince's quarters. He chatted with him confidentially, so that they might have been taken for old friends. During those three days the prince had noticed that they frequently held long conversations; he often heard their voices raised in argument on deep and learned subjects, which evidently pleased Lebedeff. He seemed as if he could not do without the general. But it was not only Ardalion Alexandrovitch whom Lebedeff kept out of the prince's way. Since they had come to the villa, he treated his own family the same. Upon the pretext that his tenant needed quiet, he kept him almost in isolation, and Muishkin protested in vain against this excess of zeal. Lebedeff stamped his feet at his daughters and drove them away if they attempted to join the prince on the terrace; not even Vera was excepted.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Idiot

"That same evening I stopped at a small provincial hotel, and it so happened that a dreadful murder had been committed there the night before, and everybody was talking about it. Two peasants--elderly men and old friends--had had tea together there the night before, and were to occupy the same bedroom. They were not drunk but one of them had noticed for the first time that his friend possessed a silver watch which he was wearing on a chain. He was by no means a thief, and was, as peasants go, a rich man; but this watch so fascinated him that he could not restrain himself. He took a knife, and when his friend turned his back, he came up softly behind, raised his eyes to heaven, crossed himself, and saying earnestly--'God forgive me, for Christ's sake!' he cut his friend's throat like a sheep, and took the watch."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Idiot

Plain living and high thinking are no more. The homely beauty of the good old cause Is gone; our peace, our fearful innocence, And pure religion breathing household laws.

WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. 1770-1850.     _O Friend! I know not which way I must look._

There is the old riddle always before me, why was ... taken from me? Human understanding has no answer for it, and yet I feel as certain as I can feel of anything that as it is, it is good, it is best, better than anything I can wish for. One feels one's own ignorance why what seems so right and natural should not be, and yet one knows it could not be. One hides one's head in the arms of a Higher Power, a Friend, a Father, and more than a Father. Wait, and you will know. Work, and you will be able to bear it.

Friedrich Max Müller     Thoughts on Life and Religion

I'm very pleased with each advancing year. It stems back to when I was forty. I was a bit upset about reaching that milestone, but an older<b> friend consoled me. 'Don't complain about growing old - many, many people do not have that privilege.

Earl Warren

>Friendship, in the old heroic sense of that term, no longer exists; except in the cases of kindred or other legal affinity, it is in reality no longer expected or recognised as a virtue among men.

_Carlyle._

On the twenty-ninth of November Kutuzov entered Vilna--his "dear Vilna" as he called it. Twice during his career Kutuzov had been governor of Vilna. In that wealthy town, which had not been injured, he found old friends and associations, besides the comforts of life of which he had so long been deprived. And he suddenly turned from the cares of army and state and, as far as the passions that seethed around him allowed, immersed himself in the quiet life to which he had formerly been accustomed, as if all that was taking place and all that had still to be done in the realm of history did not concern him at all.

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

"Prince," said Nastasia Philipovna, unexpectedly turning to Muishkin, "here are my old friends, Totski and General Epanchin, who wish to marry me off. Tell me what you think. Shall I marry or not? As you decide, so shall it be."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Idiot

Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD: Hello darkness, my old<b> friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence.

Paul Simon ~ And the sign flashed out its warning In the words that it was forming And the sign said "The words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls And tenement halls And whispered in the sound of silence." ~ Paul Simon

An old<b> friend is not always the person whom it is easiest to make a confidant of.--_George Eliot._

Maturin M. Ballou     Pearls of Thought

Thus far, the work had been carried on simply in the interests of science, but Lieut Brooke's method of sounding acquired a high commercial value, when the enterprise of laying down the telegraph-cable between this country and the United States was undertaken. For it became a matter of immense importance to know, not only the depth of the sea over the whole line along which the cable was to be laid, but the exact nature of the bottom, so as to guard against chances of cutting or fraying the strands of that costly rope. The Admiralty consequently ordered Captain Dayman, an old<b> friend and shipmate of mine, to ascertain the depth over the whole line of the cable, and to bring back specimens of the bottom. In former days, such a command as this might have sounded very much like one of the impossible things which the young Prince in the Fairy Tales is ordered to do before he can obtain the hand of the Princess. However, in the months of June and July, 1857, my friend performed the task assigned to nim with great expedition and precision, without, so far as I know, having met with any reward of that kind. The specimens of Atlantic mud which he procured were sent to me to be examined and reported upon.

T. H. Huxley     Aphorisms and Reflections from the Works of T. H. Huxley

Sunlight dances through the leaves Soft winds stir the sighing trees Lying in the warm grass Feel the sun upon your face Elven songs and endless nights Sweet wine and soft relaxing lights Time will never touch you Here in this enchanted place You feel there's something calling you You're wanting to return To where the misty mountains rise and friendly fires burn A place you can escape the world Where the dark lord cannot go Peace of mind and sanctuary by loud water's flow I've traveled now for many miles It feels so good to see the smiles of Friends who never left your mind When you were far away From the golden light of coming dawn Till the twilight where the sun is gone We treasure every season And every passing day We feel the coming of a new day Darkness gives way to light a new way Stop here for a while until the world, The world calls you away Yet you know I've had the feeling Standing with my senses reeling This is the place to grow old 'til I reach my final day.

RUSH

Flowers are lovely; love is flower-like; Friendship is a sheltering tree; Oh the joys that came down shower-like, Of friendship, love, and liberty, Ere I was old!

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE. 1772-1834.     _Youth and Age._

"With you I will be quite frank," said Anna Mikhaylovna. "There are not many left of us old friends! That's why I so value your friendship."

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

"Nowadays old friends are not remembered," the countess would say when Boris was mentioned.

Leo Tolstoy     War and Peace

Laugh, and the world laughs with you; Weep, and you weep alone. For this brave old earth must borrow its mirth, But has trouble enough of its own. Sing, and the hills will answer; Sigh, it is lost on the air. The echoes bound to a joyful sound, But shrink from voicing care. Rejoice, and men will seek you; Grieve, and they turn and go. They want full measure of all your pleasure, But they do not need your woe. Be glad, and your friends are many; Be sad, and you lose them all. There are none to decline your nectared wine, But alone you must drink life's gall. Feast, and your halls are crowded. Fast, and the world goes by. Succeed and give, and it helps you live, But no man can help you die. There is room in the halls of pleasure For a long and lordly train, But one by one we must all file on Through the narrow aisles of pain.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Nothing's more dull and negligent / Than an old lazy government, / That knows no interest of state, / But such as serves a present strait, / And, to patch up or shift, will close, / Or break alike, with friends or foes.

_Butler._

Gradually the reception-room filled, and some of our old friends made their appearance--we mean Debray, Chateau-Renaud, and Beauchamp, accompanied by all the leading men of the day at the bar, in literature, or the army, for M. de Villefort moved in the first Parisian circles, less owing to his social position than to his personal merit. The cousin standing at the door ushered in the guests, and it was rather a relief to the indifferent to see a person as unmoved as themselves, and who did not exact a mournful face or force tears, as would have been the case with a father, a brother, or a lover. Those who were acquainted soon formed into little groups. One of them was made of Debray, Chateau-Renaud, and Beauchamp.

Alexandre Dumas, Pere     The Count of Monte Cristo

"Oh, not cold--believe an old man--not from a cold, but from grief for her prince. Oh--your mother, your mother! heigh-ho! Youth--youth! Your father and I--old friends as we were--nearly murdered each other for her sake."

Fyodor Dostoyevsky     The Idiot

When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it's a sure sign you're getting old.

Mark Twain

Each departed friend is a magnet that attracts us to the next world, and the old man lives among graves.

_Jean Paul._

"You mistake me, my dear. I have a high respect for your nerves. They are my old friends. I have heard you mention them with consideration these last twenty years at least."

Jane Austen     Pride and Prejudice

How many slams in an old screen door? Depends how loud you shut it. How many slices in a bread? Depends how thin you cut it. How much good inside a day? Depends how good you live 'em. How much love inside a friend? Depends how much you give 'em.

Shel Silverstein

_Types._--When once the secret is disclosed it is impossible not to see it If the Old Testament be read in this light, we shall see if the sacrifices were real; if the fatherhood of Abraham was the true cause of the friendship of God; that the promised land was not the true place of rest. These were then but types. If in the same way we examine all those ordained ceremonies, and all those commandments which are not of charity, we shall see that they are types.

Blaise Pascal     The Thoughts of Blaise Pascal

My days among the dead are passed; Around me I behold, Where'er these casual eyes are cast, The mighty minds of old; My never-failing friends are they, With whom I converse day by day.

ROBERT SOUTHEY. 1774-1843.     _Occasional Pieces. xxiii._

Quam veterrimus homini optimus est amicus=--A man's oldest<b> friend is his best.

Plautus.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend.

OLD TESTAMENT.     _Proverbs xxvii. 6._

Dla przyjaciela nowego / Nie opuszczaj starego!=--To keep a new friend, never break with the old.

_Russ. Pr._

The ivy, like the spider, takes hold with her hands in king's palaces, as every twig is furnished with innumerable little fingers, by which it draws itself close, as it were, to the very heart of the old rough stone. Its clinging and beautiful tenacity has given rise to an abundance of conceits about fidelity, friendship, and woman's love, which have become commonplace simply from their appropriateness. It might also symbolize the higher love, unconquerable and unconquered, which has embraced this ruined world from age to age, silently spreading its green over the rents and fissures of our fallen nature.--_Mrs. Stowe._

Maturin M. Ballou     Pearls of Thought

"I should hope so," retorted Laigle. "That's why we get on well together, my coat and I. It has acquired all my folds, it does not bind me anywhere, it is moulded on my deformities, it falls in with all my movements, I am only conscious of it because it keeps me warm. Old coats are just like old friends."

Victor Hugo     Les Miserables

told him that,” Othniel interrupted. “She’s a good woman deep inside. I don’t know what path brought her to what she is now, but she saved our lives.” Joshua listened as Othniel spoke warmly of Rahab; then he nodded, “You have given your word and it shall be kept. When the battle comes, you two will be responsible for bringing this woman Rahab and her family out safely.” “Yes, master.” Othniel nodded eagerly. “We’ll do it.” Joshua turned and clapped his old<b> friend Caleb on the shoulder. “And now at last we cross the Jordan.

Gilbert Morris

I was wounded in the house of my friends.

OLD TESTAMENT.     _Zechariah xiii. 6._

A man that hath friends must show himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.

OLD TESTAMENT.     _Proverbs xviii. 24._

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