Making Good Friends
Making good friends needs a great deal of care and wisdom. Man cannot live alone. His life becomes dull and painful if there is none to feel for him in weal and woe. So making good friends is essential. Friendship is a great social virtue. A good friend is better than wealth and reputation. True friendship is very rare in this world. A friend in a need is a friend indeed. A true friend will stand by us in weal and woe. Boyhood and youth are suitable periods for sowing the seeds of friendship. It is not easy to make good friends. The first thing necessary is to have a trustful nature. Confidence alone begets confidence. Secrecy is the poison that always destroys a friendship. Moreover, one must be tolerant and forbearing. If making good friends is a science, to maintain it is an art. One must not be too exacting. Having won a friend, one must nurture him with love and affection. Making good friends is necessary and have great influence on character. Good friends are always ready to share the joys of prosperity and the pains of adversity. Good friends are not summer birds who fly away in the frosty days of winter. They are not flatterers. They are always sincere well-wishers of their friends and never sweet-mouthed sycophant. Good friends make us happy but a bad one will lead us to hell. There is a proverb, “A man is known by the company he keeps.” So we should avoid the company of bad friends and make friends with good care.