What is evil neither can nor should be loved; for it is not one’s duty to be a lover of evil or to become like what is bad; and we have said that like is dear to like. Must the friendship, then, be forthwith broken off? Or is this not so in all cases, but only when one’s friends are incurable in their wickedness? If they are capable of being reformed one should rather come to the assistance of their character or their property, inasmuch as this is better and more characteristic of friendship. But a man who breaks off such a friendship would seem to be doing nothing strange; for it was not to a man of this sort that he was a friend; when his friend changed, therefore, and he is unable to save him, he gives him up.

Lately, he had been wondering if codependence was such a bad thing. He took pleasure in his friendships, and it didn’t hurt anyone, so who cared if it was codependent or not? And anyway, how was a friendship any more codependent than a relationship? Why was it admirable when you were twenty-seven but creepy when you were thirty-seven? Why wasn’t friendship as good as a relationship? Why wasn’t it even better? It was two people who remained together, day after day, bound not by sex or physical attraction or money or children or property, but only by the shared agreement to keep going, the mutual dedication to a union that could never be codified. Friendship was witnessing another’s slow drip of miseries, and long bouts of boredom, and occasional triumphs. It was feeling honoured by the privilege of getting to be present for another person’s most dismal moments, and knowing that you could be dismal around him in return.

“We've formed a lot of friendships with the people up here. My hope is to find a cabin up here to buy so we can be here whenever we choose.”

“I just remember how much fun I had. I played with kids I'm still friends with today. You build some friendships there that last forever.”

“No sex between Mulder and Scully! Only deep friendship. People thinking there's more than that between us amuses me. With Gillian, we've created the illusion of romance.”

“Dad was in position with having to move on. He and Hatfield struck up a relationship, had a lot of the same life experiences, and they had a friendship that continued until the day Dad died.”

“[The friendship: With a high school friend,] my alter ego, ... always daring to do what I was too inhibited to do, which is why I enjoyed her company.”

“When friendship disappears then there is a space left open to that awful loneliness of the outside world which is like the cold space between the planets. It is an air in which men perish utterly.”

“I've talked to kids that have gone in the past and they said they still talk to friends that they made at Boys State. I think it would be awesome to make some of those friendships.”

“The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words.”