'Oh, the comfort - the inexpressesible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having niether to weigh throught, nor measure words, but pouring them all out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; knowing that a faithful hand will take and sift them - keep what is worth keeping - and with the breath of kindness blow away the rest.' - 19th century, George Eliot.

"When true friends meet in adverse hour;
'Tis like a sunbeam through a shower.
A watery way an instant seen,
The darkly closing clouds between." - Sir Walter Scott.

"I find friendship to be like wine, raw when new, ripened with age, the true old man's milk and restorative cordial." - Thomas Jefferson.

"I do not wish to treat friendships daintily, but with the roughest courage. When they are real, they are not glass threads or frost-work, but the solidest thing we know." - Ralph Waldo Emerson.

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." - Martin Luther King Jr.

“When everything goes to hell, the people who stand by you without flinching -- they are your family. ” - Jim Butcher.

“That's what people do who love you. They put their arms around you and love you when you're not so lovable.” - Deb Caletti.

"The strength of a family, like the strength of an army, is in its loyalty to each other." - Mario Puzo, the family.

"Family quarrels are bitter things. They don’t go according to any rules. They’re not like aches or wounds; they’re more like splits in the skin that won’t heal because there’s not enough material." - F Scott Fitzgerald.