Original artwork, not a still
True friendship is like sound health; the value of it is seldom known until it be lost.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Colton's comparison is that we never think about friendship while it is working, any more than we think about being healthy, and only miss it when it fails. It is a nineteenth-century aphorism of the sort that was written to be copied into commonplace books, and it still turns up in cards, toasts and funeral readings. Its force is the quiet warning: appreciate your friends before you lose them.
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In context
May contain spoilersShow the scene
The line comes from Lacon, or Many Things in Few Words: Addressed to Those who Think, a book of aphorisms by the English clergyman, author and art collector Charles Caleb Colton. Lacon was published in two volumes, the first in 1820 and the second in 1822, with a corrected one-volume edition in 1836. Wikiquote's Friendship page credits this sentence to Lacon (1820), which points to the first volume. I could not open the original text, so the aphorism's exact number is not confirmed here.
Sources (2)
- Wikiquote: FriendshipQuotations list, Colton entryReference checked
- Wikiquote: Charles Caleb ColtonLacon (1820) headingReference checked
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