Never do it hurriedly: Be slow in choosing a friend, but slower in loosing

Human nature is so varied that it's really difficult to describe it in a single or few sentences. No two persons in this world are similar in nature. "Like minded person" is a phrase used to describe people who have few habits in common among each other but it can't be said for sure that they have everything similar.

We observe differences in traits of human nature and one big difference is in making friends. Some people are expert in the art of making friends and fast in forging relationships while others are slow or bit shy. There is Scottish proverb "Be slow in choosing a friend, but slower in changing him".The nitty-gritty of the proverb is focused on understanding the nature of people before allowing them to become friends. Once you allow someone to enter the inner circle of your friendship net, you allow them to explain their position before expelling them out of the arena. Good friends are good resource and they should be selected to be termed so after careful evaluation of purpose and reason. Broken relationships are not easily taken up by sensible people.

Who makes more friends?

Politicians: Friendship in political sense means a relationship that is made to serve a particular purpose. Someone has rightly said that there are neither permanent friends nor permanent foes in politics. Politics is a number game. Successful politicians knew it very well that number is strongest weapon in political field. If you have more people with you as friends, as followers or as supporters, you are bound to achieve success earlier than politicians who have less number with them. If you wish to become Prime Minister, Chief Minister or even President of local unit of any political party, you need more number of people (as MP or MLA) with you. If you have more friends, you can arrange more supporters. Politicians are experts in making friends and they possess this attribute as an inherited attribute. Politicians are very polite and greet people with folded hands. They will bow down comparatively more than normal people. They would show more sympathy towards you than what you deserve. They will boast of their relationship with influential people. As fast as they make friends, as soon as possible they can ditch them if this serve their purpose. Behavior of politicians shows that this is not a desirable characteristic for ordinary people to make more friends in less time and Scottish proverb holds true in its essence.

Businessmen: Alike politicians, businessmen are equally expert in making friends at supersonic speed. Their business thrives around friends turned customers. However, these people are equally expert breaking friendship. Their friendship is based on benefits they drive from their friends. They will make friends in different circles viz., political, social and Government offices. They will give great honor to friends as far as they help them getting business from their official departments, acquaintances etc. Once they have exploited you fully and don't find you anymore useful, they'll start ignoring you. Salesmen, agents and touts are experts in making short-lived fast relationship.

I would like to cite here a quote about politicians and businessmen friendship from Dame Edna Everage "My mother used to say that there are no strangers, only friends you haven't met yet. She's now in a maximum security twilight home in Australia".

According to an Indian Proverb these can never be true friends: Hope, dice, a prostitute, a robber, a cheat, a goldsmith, a monkey, a doctor, a distiller.

Choose your friends carefully. Your enemies will choose you.
Yassir Arafat

Choose in marriage only a woman whom you would choose as a friend if she were a man.
Joseph Joubert

A friend is one to whom one can pour out all the contents of one's heart, chaff and grain together, knowing that the gentlest of hands will take and sift it, keeping what is worth keeping, and, with the breath of kindness, blow the rest away.
Arabian Proverb

A friend is someone who sees through you and still enjoys the view.
Wilma Askinas

Tell me who's your friend and I'll tell you who you are.
Russian Proverb

The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Arabian Proverb

We learn our virtues from our friends who love us; our faults from the enemy who hates us. We cannot easily discover our real character from a friend. He is a mirror, on which the warmth of our breath impedes the clearness of the reflection.
Jean Paul Richter

He makes no friends who never made a foe.
Lord Alfred Tennyson