Best friend quotes to express how special your friendship is

Medically reviewed by April Justice, LICSW
Updated May 3, 2024by BetterHelp Editorial Team

Sometimes, our own words don’t seem like enough to convey the depth of warmth and love we have for our true friends. Whether you’re writing a heartfelt message for the perfect gift or you’re preparing a social media post, you might consider using one of the following quotes to help you express how much you value your friends and their presence in your life. 

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Do you have trouble expressing how you feel to your friends?

Quotes to tell your best friends how much you love them

According to researchers at the Mayo Clinic, friendship can enrich your life in numerous ways, including improved health and extended life expectancy. The following are some quotes to tell your close friends how much they mean to you:

  • “Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life.” -Mark Twain
  • “How beautiful it is to find someone who asks for nothing but your company.” -Brigitte Nicole
  • “When friendships are real, they are not glass threads or frost work, but the solidest things we can know.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “No friendship is an accident.” -O. Henry
  • “There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature.” -Jane Austen

Celebrate childhood friendships with quotes

Many of us grew up with beloved characters from books and television who demonstrated the true meaning of friendship and how to love and accept people as they are. These characters’ words can make perfect messages for reminiscing about days past and sharing fond memories with childhood friends:

  • “If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you." -Joan Powers, Pooh’s Little Instruction Book
  • “Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend.” -Bill Watterson
  • "Growing apart doesn't change the fact that for a long time, we grew side by side." -Ally Condie
  • “We were together. I forget the rest.” -Walt Whitman
  • “Childhood friends are the benchmark of our lives, no matter where we go, what we do. They will always come by and take you to the place where you belong.” -Burhan Din Wani
  • “We didn’t realize we were making memories. We just knew we were having fun." -Winnie The Pooh

Quotes about relying on friendship in tough times

Friends are often the first people we look to for emotional support when facing troubling situations. Here are some quotes that illustrate just that:

  • “A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” -Walter Winchell
  • “I get by with a little help from my friends.” -The Beatles
  • “It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter.” -Marlene Dietrich
  • “Life is an awful, ugly place to not have a best friend.” -Sarah Dessen
  • “Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud.” -Maya Angelou
  • "I would rather walk with a friend in the dark than alone in the light.” -Helen Keller
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Best friend quotes to express your joy at being understood

Your best friend can make you feel seen and understood, which can be a priceless trait. Below are some quotes to share how much it means to be accepted and understood as you are:

  • “Friendship…is born at the moment when one man says to another, ‘What! You too? I thought that no one but myself…’” -C.S. Lewis
  • “A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.” -Jim Morrison
  • “Close friends are truly life’s treasures. Sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. With gentle honesty, they are there to guide and support us, to share our laughter and our tears. Their presence reminds us that we are never really alone.” -Vincent Van Gogh
  • “One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and be understood.” -Lucius Annaeus Seneca
  • “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” -Elbert Hubbard

Quotes about the wonderful things your friend represents

Research shows that close social relationships can be essential to well-being, happiness, physical health, and longevity. You might try these quotes to show your friends how grateful you are for the wonderful things they bring to your life:

  • “Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life you can barely remember what life was like without them.” -Anna Taylor
  • “Silence makes the real conversations between friends. Not the saying, but the never needing to say that counts.” -Margaret Lee Runbeck
  • “A good friend is a connection to life—a tie to the past, a road to the future, and the key to sanity in a totally insane world.” -Lois Wyse 
  • “What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies.” -Aristotle

Sayings that highlight good times with old friends

Running into old friends or finding a picture from years ago can bring up many great memories. To show a friend your appreciation, you might consider sending a picture with one of these quotes to highlight fun experiences you had together:

  • “You don’t have to have anything in common with people you’ve known since you were five. With old friends, you’ve got your whole life in common.” -Lyle Lovett
  • “One of the blessings of old friends is that you can afford to be stupid with them.” -Ralph Waldo Emerson
  • “Time doesn’t take away from friendship, nor does separation.” -Tennessee Williams
  • “A friend knows the song in my heart and sings it to me when my memory fails.” -Donna Roberts
  • “Beautiful memories are like old friends. They may not always be on your mind, but they are forever in your heart.” -Susan Gale

Quotes about the value of true friendship

Cultures all around the world place significance on the value of friendship. You might use these quotes to show your best friend how much you appreciate their presence in your life:

  • “A true friend never gets in your way unless you happen to be going down.” -Arnold H. Glasow
  • “If you have two friends in your lifetime, you’re lucky. If you have one good friend, you’re more than lucky.” -S.E. Hinton
  • “Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.” -Anais Nin
  • “A true friend accepts who you are, but also helps you become who you should be.” -Unknown
  • “There is nothing like a really loyal, dependable, good friend. Nothing.” -Jennifer Aniston

Words to help express how precious your friendship is

You may seek friend quotes to tell the people in your life how much their friendship refreshes you. Kind words can cement the connection you share, so you might use these quotes to convey how precious you consider the bond:

  • “Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.” -Khalil Gibson
  • “A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself.” -Heidi Wills
  • “Friendship isn’t a big thing—it’s a million little things.” -Paulo Coelho 
  • “Of all possessions, a friend is the most precious.” -Herodotus
  • “Awards become corroded. Friends gather no dust.” -Jesse Owens
  • “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” -Elisabeth Foley
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Do you have trouble expressing how you feel to your friends?

How therapy may help you express your feelings to friends

It’s possible that you value your friends and feel a solid connection with them, but you may not know how to express these emotions. Or you may have a special friend with whom you’re going through a challenging period. If either of these cases, you might consider connecting with a licensed counselor. If you feel hesitant about traditional in-person therapy, you might benefit from online therapy. 

With online therapy, you can communicate in a way that’s most comfortable for you, whether by audio, video, live chat, or a combination of these methods. Also, with online therapy, many individuals report shorter wait times, lower costs, and a much wider variety of available therapists than with in-person therapy. Therapy may help you develop your sense of emotional awareness and literacy so you can recognize how you feel, understand how it impacts you, and convey your feelings to your friends. 

Many mental healthcare providers use cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to help people explore the connection between how they think and feel, allowing them to recognize and reshape harmful patterns. Studies show that , and it can often be used for a variety of concerns. 

Takeaway

When you don’t have the words to convey how you feel, friendship quotes may help you express yourself and how special a friendship is to you. If you’re interested in exploring ways to enhance or repair a friendship, you might consider connecting with a therapist. Whether you choose online or in-office therapy, you might find that therapy provides insight into what you’re experiencing in your friendships. Take the first step toward improving your friendships and reach out to BetterHelp today.
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