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Quote by Gail Caldwell

Work

Let's Take the Long Way Home: A Memoir of Friendship

This memoir delves into the deep and complex relationship between two individuals, chronicling their shared experiences and the evolution of their friendship over time. more

Author

Gail Caldwell
Gail Caldwell

Gail Caldwell, born in 1951, is an accomplished literary critic. Her work is renowned for its insightful analysis and unique perspectives on a wide range of literary works, including poetry, novels, and prose. more

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“Gentle, honest, heart-to-heart conversations—the deep kind that reach inside your soul to fan at dying embers, making them glow and emit warmth that soothes both flesh and mind—are worth more than the combined wealth of universes.”

“Friendship can only succeed when its conditions are fulfilled, and he who fulfils all or some of these conditions may be befriended, and if not, then do not attribute any of your friendship to him. The first of these conditions is that he should treat you in public the same as he treats you in private. Secondly, that your source of pride is a source of pride for him, and your source of shame is a source of shame for him too. Thirdly, that neither friendship [with others] nor wealth should render him envious of you. Fourthly, that he must not prevent you from obtaining that which you have the capacity for, and fifthly – and this sums up all the other qualities – that he must not give up on you in times of misfortune.”

“He said that the blood was not his own, but that of a comrade a few feet away who had been blown apart by an enemy grenade. And after having left the rice paddies of Vietnam, he eventually took up residence in the pew of a small mid-western church. For he said that he had been covered by the blood of one friend in combat and by blood of another on a cross in another sort of combat. And such was his love for both that he committed to forget neither.”