“What are the infallible marks of friendship? Let antiquity answer: idem velle, idem nolle, ea demum firma amicitia*, and also extremely tiresome. What are the infallible marks of friendship? Mutual assistance in word and deed. Two friends form a close association in order to be everything to one another, and that although it is impossible for one human being to be anything to another human being except to be in this way.”
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~Source: Either/Or: A Fragment of Life (1843)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard using the pseudonym Victor Eremita
*To wish and not to wish the same thing–this at last is firm friendship.
