Great souls by instinct to each other turn, Demand alliance, and in friendship burn - Addison

If you read yesterday's post then you know my deep love of poetry. I also have a love of old books. I mean, really old books. Not just books that were my grandmother's (although those can be cool too), but books from the 1800s and early 1900s. One of my favorite finds is A Dictionary of Poetical Quotations from English and American Poets by Anna L. Ward. It is copyright 1883, but the inscription in the front presents it to someone for Christmas 1902. And there is a newspaper clipping from goodness knows when in the middle of the section on love. It's a printing of Shakespeare's "Let me not to the marriage of true minds" and has been in the same spot in the book long enough to discolour the pages. I love imagining stories about who owned the book and why they put the newspaper clipping into it. I am such a romantic at heart. Anyway, the book itself is quite beautiful. I'll photograph it some time and share it with all of you. I love it dearly. These images are from a quick photoshoot I did with the section titled "Friendship". I just loved the quotes and they seemed to capture a bit of what I'm feeling today:

I count myself in nothing else so happy,
As in a soul rememb'ring my good friends.
Shakspeare: Richard II Act ii. Sc. 3

                    True happiness
Consists not in the multitude of friends,
But in the worth and choice.
Ben Jonson: Cynthia's Revels Act iii. Sc. 2

Friendship's an abstract of this noble flame,
'Tis love refin'd, and purged from all its dross,
'Tis next to angel's love, if not the same,
As strong in passion is , though not so gross.
Catherine Philips

That third quote is just visible in the second picture. It didn't strike me when I was taking the photos, so it isn't quite in focus. It did strike me when I was going through all the photos so I figured I would type it out for all of you. I think it is quite beautiful and quite true. The title of this post is another quote from the same book. I've been spending a lot of time with some dear friends lately and am beginning to realize that even if I don't have a LOT of friends I do have some spectacular people in my life that I am truly blessed to know.