TO HOLD A FRIEND

From “Hamlet,” Act I, Sc. 3

Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;
But do not dull thy palm with entertainment
Of each new hatched, unfledged comrade. Beware
of entrance to a quarrel; but being in,
Bear ’t that th’ opposed may beware of thee.
Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice;
Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement.
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel often proclaims the man;
And they in France, of best rank and station;
are most select and generous, chief in that.
Neither a borrower, nor a lender be;
For loan often loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day
Thou canst not then be false to any man.

William Shakespeare.