It Is More Important to Keep Your Old Friends Than It Is to Make New Friends.

It is important to choose the right friends, good friends can take you wherever you want to go in life, and the wrong friends can be a disastrous decision. A quote from The Pact sums this up nicely, “Friendship can lift you up, strengthen and empower you, or break you down, weaken and defeat you.” (32) This is why it is so important to surround yourself with positive people, and

Friendships change over time. Some people stay your friends forever others are only temporary. This essay shows how my friendships have changed between Elementary school and Middle school, between middle and high school, and how some have stayed the same over the course of my education.

Friendship is one of the most valuable components in life. Friendship has the ability to change lives in a positive way. Friendship changes people’s views on life to a more positive outlook. “True friendship is when someone knows you better than yourself and takes a position in your best interests in a crisis. Friendship goes beyond sharing time together, and it is long lasting.” (Friends.com). As we spend a lot of time with our friends, friendship opens our minds to different ways of viewing the world. Unfortunately, sometimes strong barriers may be placed by those who see two people’s friendship as a threat; since people are influenced by their friends, friendship could make people question what

Without friends life is lonely and isolated. Friends are important to share enjoyable activities with, companions with whom to share worries, people to rescue you in difficulty and to be comforted at times of stress. Additionally friendships have enormous developmental implications (Murray 2009). It helps the socialising process. Also, it promotes the natural move towards “greater independence” in adolescence (Murray 2009). It does this because when you depend on someone for so long you start to branch off on our own and stop depending on others like you used to. Adolescent friendships also provide a connection to others who are at the same stage (Murray 2009).

Perhaps this means that the living friend begins to do more reflection on the experiences shared while both were living; perhaps this means that the living party carries on with conversing with their friend who has passed on, either not expecting a response or crafting one that they think their friend might have offered as a response in life. The new kind of friendship is more introspective, but the connection needn’t die because one of the friends did. Whyte also postulates that, “all friendships of any length are based on a continued, mutual forgiveness. Without tolerance and mercy all friendships die” (Whyte 71). It seems that, to Whyte, forgiveness and understanding are the cornerstones of a successful friendship. Not only is an authentic friendship strengthened over time because of the numerous chances for one’s mistakes and the other’s resultant forgiveness, but also, time strengthens it by desensitizing the two people from each others’ downfalls. In a lasting and meaningful friendship, the downfalls are acknowledged, but they are not something upon which the friends dwell; in place of dwelling on errors, the friends focus on encouraging the positive aspects of each other’s humanity. Whyte supports this claim in saying, “…to remain friends we must know the other and their difficulties and even their sins and encourage

Friendship is something most people have experienced, but there is an uncertain path the two friends will follow into the building or demise of their relationship. Maintaining a good relationship is something that is very hard to do, as there is likely to be many mental obstacles to avoid. This element in friend relationships is shown all throughout the book, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles. One of the main messages that is relayed in the book is that friendship is a delicate element that requires care to maintain and that the competition and jealousy in the relationship can really impact the future friendship.

Addressing the family and friends thematic cluster, four authors conclude the importance of personal relationships. Though varied in their theses, tones, and styles, each article stresses that individuals quality of life can be positively affected by taking time for companions and relatives. Nancy Gibbs, writer of “The Magic of a Family Meal,” beautifully illustrates the benefits of eating with loved ones often, while “The Company Man” by Ellen Goodman demonstrates the negative effects of making one’s profession a priority over one’s personal life and relationships. Marion Winik in “What Are Friends For?” details the variety and opportunities one has to make friends throughout life. Best friends can persevere through hardships and distance as written in “Friends Forever” by Barbara Hagen. Analyzing these articles substantiated that family and friends are essential to a happy life.

The beginning of Book eight of the Nicomachean Ethics states that friendship is a “kind of virtue and it is also most necessary for living” (Book VIII, 1155a, 1-2). Friendships connect to all walks of life, with friends we can help young from making mistakes and assist the elderly in life through their delicate state they cannot do themselves. The most significant power friendship has is the ability to hold communities and how it’s closely connected to justice (Book VIII, 1155a, 20-26). Which is interesting because it seems that by human nature we strive for the sense of harmony in a community. We aim for happiness between community members and happiness as a whole. Aristotle later comments that a possession of many friends are one of the fine things of life and it is a splendid thing to obtain.

Everyday, people from all over the nation communicate with each other. They create friendships that fill up a constitute of their lives. Some friendships last longer than others and some of them are more meaningful. The question, “Do friendships change us?” has revolved around the planet, making humans wonder if they would react differently to life situations if they had not spent time with someone. In the novel A Separate Piece by John Knowles, Gene Forrester and Phineas go through two school years discovering themselves to uncode the truth about their friendship. Throughout the novel, Knowles presents readers to some answers that are obvious to the question, “Do friendships really change us?”. Through Gene’s three stages of change, Knowles shows a friendship with fascination, jealousy, and acceptance that can still define a good friendship and change the way both boys think. Yet, when it comes to the outcome of their friendship, Gene’s view of their friendship

The friendships form because they lack care from other people in their lives and need the friendship to compensate their loss of emotion. Although two people in the friendship have different genders and ages, they have similar life experiences and living background so they can understand each other’s feelings.

Within book 8 and 9 of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, he concludes that an excellent friendship is the most choice-worthy good an individual can externally attain (Aristotle 149, 1170a, section 7). However, in chapter 3 of book 8, Aristotle asserts the finest friendships are enduring insofar the individuals are good, and the virtues remain similar. However, his proposal about the similarities of virtues doesn't seem entirely correct since people gradually change over time, but the relationship can continue to be good and the individuals remain close friends. Aristotle would assert that if the virtuous character of the friend were to change, the friendship could potentially dissolve; unless the agent can return their friend to their original state of similarity. This is because his assertion about an enduring friendship requires that the individuals are both good and similar in virtuous behaviour. Nevertheless, this essay aims to argue that friendships are enduring through the means of gaining/building a state of mutual confidence in our friend, rather individuals being similar in virtue.

We often make friends with those who give us pleasure and stay away from those who make us depressed. We often expect to find something positive in friendship. Kathleen Moore thinks otherwise when tightening a wonderful friendship with Sorrow in the essay My Old Friend, Sorrow. It is a friendship that does not offer her just merely joy, but the deep insight, where she can find the solace.

In life there are many changes that can cause a true friendship to go wary such as marriage, divorce, birth of children, new careers, and sickness. However, through each of those events the two must remember to keep the intimacy, the letting down of emotional barriers and the expression of innermost thoughts and feelings, “that which makes friendships thrive must be an enjoyable one” and to “always interact” (Karbo 3). Although psychologists continue to research the formation of friendships the great philosopher Aristotle knew exactly how friendships formed and how the lasted.

“No one would choose a friendless existence on condition of having all the other things in the world (Aristotle).” Humans are social beings, social beyond any other creature in the world. Human interaction is a must for survival. It is in our nature. Aristotle understood this, he even had his own analysis of friendship. In the Nicomachean Ethics written by Aristotle, books VIII and IX are based off of friendship. Today, the definition of a friend is, “A person with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically one exclusive of sexual or family relations (Oxford Dictionary).” To Aristotle, friendship is much more than this. In this research paper, I will evaluate whether or not Aristotle’s analysis of friendship is applicable to the modern world.

Aristotle highlighted the importance of friendship through various practices and concepts, such as utility and virtue. Virtuous practices were believed to enhance the friendship and encourage happiness among the participants (Kraut 64). Unfortunately, a friend whose behavior and practices are malevolent causes a rift in the practice of Aristotle’s principles. Therefore, to preserve the friendship and to protect one’s friend, one must do all that is possible to cease his or her friend’s actions.