September 23

“It is the wisdom of life to receive our friends as from the hand of God, and to give to the task of understanding them the same trouble that we give to the comprehension of the thoughts of God in nature; to work out the drama of our love and friendship, subject to the primary feeling in the mind of Christ, reverence for the human soul. Then, in the midst of the new enjoyment which they bring us, we shall find additional power of progress, and the delights of life will be as much an element of our evolution as its sorrows.”

STOPFORD BROOKE

“Each year to ancient friendships adds a ring,
As to an oak, and precious more and more,
Without deservingness, or help of ours
They grow, and, silent, wider spread each year
Their unbought ring of shelter or of shade.”

LOWELL

“’The theatre of all my actions is fallen’; said an antique personage when his chief friend was dead; and they are fortunate who get a theatre where the audience demands their best.”

GEORGE ELIOT [pen-name of Mary Ann Evans]