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Aristotle Ἀριστοτέλης

c. 330 BC · ancient Greece

For without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods.

ἄνευ γὰρ φίλων οὐδεὶς ἕλοιτʼ ἂν ζῆν, ἔχων τὰ λοιπὰ ἀγαθὰ πάντα

Nicomachean Ethics, book 8, chapter 1

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Michel de Montaigne

1580s · near Bordeaux, France · Of his friend La Boétie, who had died before him

If a man should importune me to give a reason why I loved him, I find it could no otherwise be expressed, than by making answer: because it was he, because it was I.

Essays, book 1, "Of Friendship" · in place of the original: the English translation by Charles Cotton (1686, revised by Hazlitt in 1877)

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Thiruvalluvar திருவள்ளுவர்

about 2,000 years ago · Tamil country, South India

Like the hand that flies to catch a slipping garment, friendship is what removes a friend's trouble on the spot.

உடுக்கை இழந்தவன் கைபோல ஆங்கே இடுக்கண் களைவதாம் நட்பு.

Tirukkural 788

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Gao Shi 高適

747 · Tang China

Ten miles of yellow cloud, the white sun dim. The north wind drives the wild geese, and the snow comes thick. Do not worry that there will be no one who knows you on the road ahead. Who under heaven does not know you?

十里黃雲白日曛，北風吹雁雪紛紛。 莫愁前路無知己，天下誰人不識君。

"Farewell to Dong Da," the first poem, in the Complete Tang Poems

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Li Bai 李白

c. 755 · Tang China · On seeing Wang Lun, a villager who had been his host, come out to see him off

Li Bai was aboard and about to set off when suddenly, from the bank, came stamping feet and song. The water of Peach Blossom Pool is a thousand feet deep, and not so deep as Wang Lun's love in seeing me off.

李白乘舟將欲行，忽聞岸上踏歌聲。 桃花潭水深千尺，不及汪倫送我情。

"For Wang Lun"

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