Book 7
49
These things, therefore, show the correctness of the saying that friendship is a thing to be relied on, just as happiness is a thing that is self-sufficing. And it has been rightly said Eur. El. 941.: Nature is permanent, but wealth is not— although it would be much finer to say Friendship than Nature.Or, emending the text, that friendship is goodness of nature.
50
And it is proverbial that time shows a friend, and also misfortunes more than good fortune. For then the truth of the saying friends’ possessions are common property is clear for only friends, instead of the natural goods and natural evils on which good and bad fortune turn, choose a human being rather than the presence of the former and the absence of the latter;
51
and misfortune shows those who are not friends really but only because of some casual utility. And both are shown by time; for even the useful friend is not shown quickly, but rather the pleasant one—except that one who is absolutely pleasant is also not quick to show himself. For men are like wines and foods; the sweetness of those is quickly evident, but when lasting longer it is unpleasant and not sweet, and similarly in the case of men. For absolute pleasantness is a thing to be defined by the End it effects and the time it lasts.
