We explain what friendship is and the types of friendship that exist. Also, the importance of this type of relationship and phrases about friendship.
What is friendship?
Friendship is called a type of affective relationship between two people, in which a certain degree of camaraderie, trust and cordiality intervenes, very similar to love, but devoid of romantic connotations.
In principle, friendship manifests as a mutual feeling, established by an equality of visions of life or of projects in common.
There are no formal parameters to study friendships and it is considered that each one is unique and proposes an unrepeatable path: some take a few minutes to establish themselves and others instead take years to set, as well as some are closer and closer, while others are more distant.
Some can even go through moments of eroticism, become love, or detach as a result of a failed love. Some, finally, can be finished.
This type of bond normally occurs between human beings, but it is also used to refer to commensal relationships or bonding between human beings and other higher animals, as occurs with dogs: it is not for nothing that they are commonly called “man‘s best friend ”.
Types of friendship
According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who wrote about friendship in his Ethics nicomtowhat (6th century BC), there are three types of friendship: useful, accidental and good. The first two are accidental and the third intentional.
- Helpful friendship. The one that takes place between two people who undertake a common goal and help each other along the way, or in which they obtain some kind of benefit from being friends. According to the philosopher, these friendships tend to run out when the objectives are reached or the benefits run out.
- Accidental friendship. Those that are based on the pleasure of sharing and passing, typical of young people and depends largely on tastes, so that time is sentenced to disappear, because with growth, tastes are among the first things to change .
- Friendship of the good. The most durable of the three and the one that really embodies the concept of friendship, is based on a vision of the good in life and virtue, that is, of certain moral precepts and a certain way of understanding existence. She does not aspire to receive anything in exchange for her, other than the same bond (reciprocity) and they can be the longest friendships, with periods of years or even a lifetime.
Other forms of friendship, approached not so much from the philosophical as from other perspectives, allow us to talk about:
- Friends with “rights” or with “benefits”. It is a relationship of friendship in which the two people are also sporadic sexual or erotic partners, without this in theory leading to deeper relationships.
- Close friend. People often speak of close friends or best friends, to separate those “special” friends or of a very deep degree, in comparison with the others: it is a special distinction.
- Virtual friend. This is the name given to friendships made through the Internet, whether through forums, social networks, email, etc.
- Fake friends. Also called toxic friends, they are those who pretend to be friends with someone or who are only friends for self-interested purposes.
Importance of friendship
Friendship is considered a value, since we are gregarious beings, that is, we tend to form groups and live in society, depending on each other. In this sense, we need allies: people who pursue goals similar to ours or with similar tastes, who accompany us in life and who “team up” with us.
On the other hand, friendship gives human beings the possibility of sharing their inner world: their spiritual concerns, their feelings, their existential questions, all in a safe environment and with a trusted person, who listens to us and gives us a disinterested opinion.
Phrases about friendship
Some phrases about friendship are:
- It is difficult to find good friends, and impossible to forget them
- Walking in the dark with a friend is preferable to walking alone in the light.
- A man’s friendships are the best measures of his worth.
- True friendship is a slow growing plant.
- A friendship without confidence is a flower without perfume.
- Friendship, if it really is, grows in adversity.
- If you want to meet your friends, need them.
- Friendship is the true fortune that a man can have.
- There is no desert like living without friends.
- Friendship multiplies the goods and distributes the evils.
- Friendship is priceless.
- Friend is the one who enters when everyone has left.