1For friendship is nothing else than agreement on all things divine and human, together with goodwill and affection, and I am inclined to think that, wisdom excepted, nothing better than this has been given to man by the immortal gods. 1Some prefer riches, some good health, some power, some offices, many even pleasures. 1This last belongs to beasts, while the former are fleeting and uncertain, depending not so much on our own plans as on the caprice of fortune. 1Those who place the highest good in virtue do so splendidly indeed, but it is this very virtue that both begets and preserves friendship, and without virtue friendship cannot exist in any way.
21Now let us interpret virtue by the usage of our own life and speech, and not measure it, as certain learned men do, by grandeur of words, and let us count as good men those who are held to be so, the Pauli, Catos, Galli, Scipios and Phili; with these everyday life is content; 21and let us leave aside those who are nowhere to be found at all. 22Among such men, then, friendship has advantages so great that I can scarcely tell them. 22In the first place, how can life be 'worth living', as Ennius says, if it does not find rest in the mutual goodwill of a friend? 22What is sweeter than to have someone with whom you may dare to speak of everything as with yourself?
22How could there be such enjoyment in prosperity, unless you had someone to rejoice in it as much as you yourself? 22And adversity would be hard to bear without someone who would bear it even more heavily than you. 22Finally, the other things that are sought after are each suited, broadly, to a single purpose: riches, that you may use them; 22influence, that you may be courted; 22offices, that you may be praised; 22pleasures, that you may enjoy them; 22health, that you may be free from pain and perform the functions of the body; 22friendship embraces a great many things: wherever you turn, it is at hand, it is shut out from no place, it is never untimely, never irksome.
22And so we do not use water or fire, as they say, in more places than friendship. 22Nor am I speaking now of the common or ordinary kind, which nonetheless itself both delights and benefits, but of the true and perfect kind, such as was that of the few who are named. 22For friendship both makes prosperity more splendid and, by dividing and sharing it, makes adversity lighter.