Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with
thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the 'nay' in your
own mind, nor do you withhold the 'ay.'
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his
heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all
expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his
absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the
plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of
the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery
is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is
caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him also know its flood
also.
For what is a friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and
sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and
is refreshed.
From "The Prophet" by Kahlil Gabrin