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 curing, not healing,
and face us with the reality of our powerlessness,
that is the friend who cares.
~Henri Nouwen

“It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter”
~Marlene Dietrich

Laughter is the closest thing to the grace of God.
~Karl Barth

“It is a curious thought, but it is only when you see people looking ridiculous that you realize just how much you love them.”
~Agatha Christie

“Certain flaws are necessary for the whole. It would seem
strange if old friends lacked certain quirks.”
~Goethe, German poet and scientist

The friend who holds your hand and says the wrong thing is made of dearer stuff than the one who stays away.
~Barbara Kingsolver

“To be trusted is a greater compliment than to be loved.”
~George MacDonald

“Love demands infinitely less than friendship.’’
~George Jean Nathan, American author and critic (1882-1958)

It is not lack of love but lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
~Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher

You can’t stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes.
~Winnie the Pooh

and yes this last one is in the right category….
“I’m a supporter of gay rights. And not a closet supporter either. From the time I was a kid, I have never been able to understand attacks upon the gay community. There are so many qualities that make up a human being… by the time I get through with all the things that I really admire about people, what they do with their private parts is so low on the list that it is irrelevant.”
~actor Paul Newman
(January 26, 1925 – September 26, 2008)

“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do.  I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me too.  Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.
~Frida Kahlo

Many people have come and left, and it has been always good because they emptied some space for better people. It is a strange experience, that those who have left me have always left places for a better quality of people. I have never been a loser.
~osho

“Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, ‘What! You too?  I thought I was the only one.”
~CS Lewis

“Sticks and stones are hard on bones, aimed with angry art,
Words can sting like anything but silence breaks the heart.”
~Phyllis McGinley

“I really don’t mind what happens now and then, as long as you’ll be my friend at the end.”
~3 Doors Down “Kryptonite”