Once an associate of Abraham Lincoln took him to task for his attitude toward his enemies saying, "Why do you try to make friends of them? You should try to destroy them." Lincoln replied gently, "Am I not destroying my enemies when I make them my friends?"
As Freemasonry demonstrates, the best of all life's treasures is friendship. Our friends, if many and true, can add more to our happiness than all the riches in the world. Friendship comforts and has a balm for a thousand ills. It dispels the dark clouds of despair while transforming all the relationships of life. No relationship is complete until it has grown into friendship. Friendship is tested by adversity, but true friendships are strengthened by struggle.
A broad nature is capable of many friendships. One friend appeals to you for one reason, another for some other reason. Friendship is the heart's library. The wise friend is your book of philosophy. The courageous friend is your book of heroism. The industrious friend is your book of achievement. The merry friend is your book of humour. As no book crowds another on your bookshelves, so no friend crowds another in the library of your heart.
There is no such thing as a one-sided friendship. If you profess to be a friend, then be to your friend what you want him to be to you. Devotion to the cause of fellowship is the truth which makes love possible and mankind happy.
(Supreme Council 33° Southern Jurisdiction. http://www.srmason-sj.org/web/articles/sep-oct04/lich.htm)
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"The secret of a good life is to have the right loyalties and hold them in the right scale of values." - Sir Winston Churchill
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