卡裏·紀伯倫/Kahlil Gibran
Your friend is your needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving. And he is your board and your fireside, for you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind, you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "ay"; and when he is silent, your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; for without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not, for that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit, for love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also, for what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live, for it is him to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
朋友是對你需求的滿足。他是你帶著愛播種，帶著感恩之心收獲的田地；也是你的膳食、你的壁爐，當你饑餓時會來到他身邊，尋求安寧。
當你的朋友傾訴他的心聲時，不要害怕說出自己心中的“不”，也不要掩飾心中的“是”；當他默默無語時，你的心仍可傾聽他的心。因為在友誼中，所有的思想、欲望、期盼，都在不可言喻的歡愉中孕生而共享。
當你和朋友分別時，不要悲傷，因為當他不在身邊時，他身上最為你所珍愛的東西會更加明顯，就像山峰對於平原上的登山者那樣清晰。