A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Emerson suggests that friendship is a peak achievement of the natural world, implying friends are rare and valuable.
- In plain terms
- Friends are one of nature's best creations.
- What can you take from it?
- Cherish your friendships as rare gifts.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- How do you define a true friend?
- What makes a friend rare?
Another view
It ignores that friendships require work and aren't always perfect.
More from Ralph Waldo Emerson
A friend is a person with whom I may be sincere. Before him I may think aloud.
Permalink to quote #121 Two may talk and one may hear, but three cannot take part in a conversation of the most sincere and searching sort.
Permalink to quote #123 Happy is the house that shelters a friend!
Permalink to quote #120
Related quotes
Don't it always seem to go That you don't know what you've got Till it's gone. They paved paradise, And put up a parking lot.
Joni MitchellJoni Mitchell quote #22 Here's to the day when it is May And care as light as a feather, When your little shoes and my big boots Go tramping over the heather.
Bliss CarmanBliss Carman quote #1 Right in the Hart of the Africn Jungel a small wite man lives. Now there is one xtrordenry fackt about him that he is the frind of all animals.
Gerald DurrellGerald Durrell quote #1