What Is Friendship?
“Friends should be few but good,” advises a Greek friendship proverb. In the same vein, a Jewish proverb states, "The good fellow to everyone is a good friend to no one." What these two proverbs emphasize is that it’s the quality and not the quantity that matters in the friendship game. good fellow to everyone is a good friend to no one." What these two proverbs emphasize is that it’s the quality and not the quantity that matters in the friendship game.
But having said that, what is friendship?
This is what you get for Definition of Friendship according to Expedia:
Friendship is a term used to denote co-operative and supportive behavior between two or more people. In this sense, the term connotes a relationship which involves mutual knowledge, esteeem, and affection and respect along with a degree of rendering service to friends in times of need or crisis. Friends will welcome each other's company and exhibit loyalty towards each other, often to the point of altruism. Their tastes will usually be similar and may converge, and they will share enjoyable activities. They will also engage in mutually helping behavior, such as exchange of advice and the sharing of hardship.
Here is the friendship definition according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Friendship, as understood here, is a distinctively personal relationship that is grounded in a concern on the part of each friend for the welfare of the other, for the other's sake, and that involves some degree of intimacy. As such, friendship is undoubtedly central to our lives, in part because the special concern we have for our friends must have a place within a broader set of concerns, including moral concerns, and in part because our friends can help shape who we are as persons. Given this centrality, important questions arise concerning the justification of friendship and, in this context, whether it is permissible to “trade up” when someone new comes along, as...