"....to discard friends because they do not behave as we expected and refuse to be educated to our requirements is the conduct of a man who has altogether mistaken the character of friendship. Friends are not concerned with what might be made of one another, but only with the enjoyment of one another; and the condition of this enjoyment is a ready acceptance of what is and the absence of any desire to change or to improve. A friend is not somebody one trusts to behave in a certain manner, who supplies certain wants, who has certain useful abilities, who possesses certain merely agreeable qualities, or who holds certain acceptable opinions; he is somebody who engages the imagination, who excites contemplation, who provokes interest, sympathy, delight and loyalty simply on account of the relationship entered into. One friend cannot replace another..."
~Michael Oakeshott, On Being Conservative, 1962
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2 comments:
wow, great quote! Fitting... Where did you find it? i really love that last sentence.
now the question is, why is this *on being conservative*? lol
It was in my reading for my political ideologies class. It's from a piece called "On Being Conservative" written by Michael Oakeshott.
His conservative argument stated that it is in our human nature to fear change, but sometimes people make small changes (never big changes because they could go wrong) to find happiness, but that isn't the case in friendship.
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