The only way to have a friend is to be one. — Ralph Waldo Emerson · Smartyfair

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The only way to have a friend is to be one. — Ralph Waldo Emerson · Smartyfair

The only way to have a friend is to be one.

Ralph Waldo Emerson1803–1882 · writer · 1800s USARalph Waldo Emerson was an American essayist and poet who encouraged people to trust their own minds and think for themselves.8 quotes

Source foundFriendship

In plain words

Want a friend? Be one first.

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Where these words come from

How sure this is: 95% sureThese words were traced back to where they first appeared. That source is listed below.
What turned up: From "Friendship," in Essays: First Series (1841). Project Gutenberg full text, ebook #16643.
Work: Essays: First Series — "Friendship"
Occasion: 1841
Sources checked: gutenberg.orgChecked using claude-sonnet-5, 21 August 2026Essays: First Series, full text — 'Friendship'

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More from Ralph Waldo Emerson

The creation of a thousand forests is in one acorn.

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More on friendship

It takes a village to raise a child.African proverb The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, 'What? You too? I thought I was the only one.'

1800s

Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

We will walk on our own feet; we will work with our own hands; we will speak our own minds.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hitch your wagon to a star.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Knowledge is the antidote to fear.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

C.S. Lewis

My friends are my 'estate.' Forgive me then the avarice to hoard them.

Emily Dickinson

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

Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?

The better part of one's life consists of his friendships.

Abraham Lincoln