Enjoy Valentine's Day With Friends (and These Love Quotes) (2024)

Humanities ›Literature

Valentine's Day is primarily for lovers. But you can also celebrate Valentine's Day with your friends. Strengthen the bond of friendship with a simple act of love. Let your friend know how much you enjoy his or her companionship with these Valentine's Day quotes for friends.

Why We Need Friends

It is important to remember our friends on Valentine's Day, because they are close to our hearts, wherever they are, however long it's been since we've seen them. And that's because...

• "Friends are as companions on a journey, who ought to aid each other to persevere in the road to a happier life." — Greek philosopher Pythagoras
• "A friend is our alter ego" — Greek philosopher Zeno
• "A friend is a second self" — Greek philosopher Aristotle
• "Love unlocks doors and opens windows that weren't even there before." — American journalist Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook
• "Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love. The real miracle is the love that inspires them. In this sense, everything that comes from love is a miracle." — American author Marianne Williamson
• "The cure for all ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows and the crimes of humanity, all lie in the one word 'love.' It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life." — American abolitionist Lydia Maria Child
• "Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light." — Helen Keller
• "He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes." — Buddha, founder of Buddhism

Why Friendship Is Better Than Love

Let's face it: in our long lives, lovers come and go; love grows and fades and grows again. So there are significant reasons why our friends fill the gap that our lovers can't. Whether we have lovers or not, we still need friendship.

• "Friendship always benefits; love sometimes injures." — Roman Stoic philosopher Seneca
• "There is an important difference between love and friendship. While the former delights in extremes and opposites, the latter demands equality." — Francoise D'Aubegne Maintenon, second wife to Louis XIV of France
• "Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life." — American writer Leo Buscaglia
• "Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing." — American political activist Elie Wiesel
• "Friendship is really the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love." — British writer Jane Austen, Northanger Abbey.
• "A friend who is far away is sometimes much nearer than one who is at hand." — Lebanese poet Kahlil Gibran

Lovers as Friends

Sometimes, if we're very lucky, our lovers are also our best friends.

• "Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves." — Bible (Book of Proverbs)
• "Love is friendship, friendship is love. If love fails, friendship should remain. For friendship is the foundation of love." — Author Unknown
• "My love, you know you are my best friend. You know that I'd do anything for you, and my love, let nothing come between us. My love for you is strong and true." — American songwriter Sarah McLachlan
• "We loved with a love that is more than love." — American novelist and poet Edgar Allan Poe, "Annabel Lee"
• "Two souls with but a single thought, /Two hearts that beat as one." — Austrian poet Friedrich Halm
• "Who would give a law to lovers? Love is unto itself a higher law." — Roman philosopher Boethius

Lessons on Being a Friend

We all need our friends; but how do we fulfill our side of the bargain?

• "If you judge people, you have no time to love them." — Albanian-Indian Roman Catholic nun and missionary Mother Teresa
• "Love does not dominate; it cultivates." — German writer and statesman Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
• "Some people care too much, I think it's called love." — fictional friend of A.A. Milne's young son Winnie the Pooh
• "We've got this gift of love, but love is like a precious plant. You can't just accept it and leave it in the cupboard or just think it's going to get on by itself. You've got to keep watering it. You've got to really look after it and nurture it." — British songwriter John Lennon
• "You don't love someone for their looks or their clothes, or for their fancy car, but because they sing a song only you can hear." — British poet and playwright Oscar Wilde