There is as much difference between the counsel that a friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer. For there is no such flatterer as is a man’s self. 

Francis Bacon

General benevolence, but not general friendship, made a man what he ought to be. 

Jane Austen

Every man passes his life in the search after friendship.

Ralph Waldo Emerson