Friendship

My revered friend walked down with me to the beach, where we embraced and parted with tenderness, and engaged to correspond by letters. I said, “I hope, Sir, you will not forget me in my absence.” Johnson. “Nay, Sir, it is more likely you should forget me, than that I should forget you.” As the vessel put out to sea, I kept my eyes upon him for a considerable time, while he remained rolling his majestic frame in his usual manner; at last I perceived him walk back into the town, and he disappeared.

James Boswell, Life of Samuel Johnson, London, 1791, p. 257

Amicus certus in re incerta cernitur.

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Patsy Rodden Ricks, and Sheila K. Dickison, De amicitia: selections, Wauconda, Ill, 2006