Love and esteem are the first principles of friendship it is always imperfect if either of these two are wanting. – Eustace Budgell
Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of one another. – Eustace Budgell
I am the woman I grew to be partly in spite of my mother, and partly because of the extraordinary love of her best friends, and my own best friends mothers, and from surrogates, many of whom were not women at all but gay men. I have loved them my entire life, even after their passing. – Anne Lamott