The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations.

I choose my friends for their good looks my acquaintances for their good characters and my enemies for their intellects. A man cannot be too careful in the choice of his enemies.

We need two kinds of acquaintances one to complain to while to the others we boast.

I came to Venice for the first time in 1968 and was lucky enough to make the acquaintanceship and then the friendship of two Venetians Roberta and Franco who remain my best friends here after almost 50 years.

My first experiences of academic friendship made me smile in after years when I looked back on them. But my circle of acquaintances had gradually grown so large that it was only natural new friendships should grow out of it.

Depth of friendship does not depend on length of acquaintance.

Experience - the wisdom that enables us to recognise in an undesirable old acquaintance the folly that we have already embraced.

The life of a man who deliberately runs through his fortune often becomes a business speculation his friends his pleasures patrons and acquaintances are his capital.

If a man does not make new acquaintances as he advances through life he will soon find himself left alone. A man sir should keep his friendship in a constant repair.