Friendship and community are the cornerstones of a fulfilling life. They offer support, joy, and a sense of belonging. Through the ages, many writers, thinkers, and leaders have shared their insights on these vital connections. Here are 50 timeless quotes on friendship and community from bell hooks, Toni Morrison, Anaïs Nin, James Baldwin, and other luminaries
bell hooks
“Deep, abiding friendships are the place where many women know lasting love. “
“Loving friendships provide us with a space to experience the joy of community in a relationship where we learn to process all our issues, to cope with differences and conflict while staying connected.”
“The challenge these days, is to be somewhere, to belong to some particular place, invest oneself in it, draw strength and courage from it, to dwell in a community.”
Anais Nin
“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.”
Michelle Obama
“We should always have three friends in our lives: one who walks ahead who we look up to and follow; one who walks beside us, who is with us every step of our journey; and then, one who we reach back for and bring along after we’ve cleared the way.”
Helen Keller
“True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart.”
Toni Morrison
“She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It’s good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”
“Our friendships with other women are the currency of our lives… In the absence of so many support systems, we are it for each other. You have to work at your friendships with the same seriousness you did when you went to school.“
James Baldwin
“The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love — whether we call it friendship or family or romance — is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other’s light.”
Maya Angelou
“A friend will stand for you when you are no longer able. A woman can say to herself, If I die, I know that my friend, my sister friend will be here to hold up the banner.”
Virginia Woolf
“Some people go to priests, others to poetry. I go to my friends.”
Emily Dickinson
“My friends are my estate.”
Jane Fonda
“Women’s friendships are like a renewable source of power.”
Jane Austen
“There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.”
Anna Deavere Smith
“Friendship is a wildly underrated medication.”
Eugene Kennedy
“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?”
C.S Lewis
“Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival.”
Octavia Butler
“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.”
Vincent Van Gogh
“Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves.”
Unknown
“A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in your garden.”
Paulo Coelho
“Friendship isn’t a big thing—it’s a million little things.”
David Tyson
“True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable.”
Anna Taylor
“Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart.”
Muhammad Ali
“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.”
Friendship and community offer solace and strength in our lives. These quotes serve as a reminder of the power of human connections and the beauty of shared experiences. May they inspire you to nurture your own bonds with those around you.
