“Friendship, then, should rest on the strongest foundation: respect, strengthened by knowledge of another's worth, a foundation that cannot be shaken.”

Original: Итак, должно утверждать дружество на крепчайшем основании; почтение, подкрепляемое знанием достоинств; вот основание, которое никогда не может поколебаться. — He makes lasting friendship depend on informed respect rather than passing affection. · Essay “On Friendship”, 1792 (Russian)

• Character
• Friendship
• Respect

“Sergey Nikolayevich, there are not many of us old acquaintances left now.”

Original: Сергей Николаевич! нас, старых знакомых, теперь немного осталось. — A spare acknowledgement of age and the steadily thinning circle of old friends. · Conversation with Sergey Glinka, recalled in contemporaries’ memoirs (Russian)

• Age
• Friendship
• Mortality

“Love is pictured with a blindfold; friendship removes it, looking carefully before it chooses.”

Original: Любовь пишется с завязанными глазами; но у дружества снимается сия завязка; дружество рассматривает прежде, нежели избирает. — A neat distinction between love's blindness and friendship's more deliberate judgement. · Essay “On Friendship”, 1792 (Russian)

• Friendship
• Love
• Wisdom