117 Best Thank You Quotes for Friends

Good friends are hard to come by, and it can be even more difficult to maintain close relationships when life is so busy and chaotic.

That’s why it’s so valuable to maintain your friendships by sending them thank you quotes and sayings.

You're fortunate to have friends willing to nurture the relationship and be there for you when you need help.

Let them know how grateful you feel with thank you words of appreciation.

But have you ever felt a bit lost trying to find the right words to show your gratitude to this kind of tried and true friend?.

If you can't quite seem to find the words to express how you feel, turn to the collective wisdom of thought leaders, authors, experts and regular people who have crafted quotations of thanks that are impactful enough to be passed on.

This collection will inspire you with the right words to communicate how you feel and to express the right amount of gratitude to your friends without sounding trite or cheesy.

What is in this article:

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Life is beautiful, messy, complicated, and everything in between. And the best we humans can do is try our hardest.

But it can be scary out here, and we don’t always hit our marks.

Thankfully, friends make the experience bearable. They bring us joy and are often the much-needed shoulder that welcomes tears. Without them, we’d be lost.

And yet, we regularly forget to tell our friends how special they are.

But validation is a vital form of positive relational feedback, making it one of the most supportive things we can do for our friends’ well-being. In other words, sharing and sending friendship quotes to your friends:

Decreases their stress levels
Increases their self-esteem
Helps them feel secure
Diminishes social anxiety

But don’t focus only on your friends and forget to use these quotes to benefit yourself. Reading and contemplating these friendship quotes can:

Stoke feelings of gratitude for your friends
Give you a moment of respite from stress and distractions
Inspire you to be a better friend
Motivate you to develop new friendships

117 of the Best Thank You Quotes for Friends:

Famous Thank You Quotes

1. Let us be grateful to people who make us happy. They are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom. -Marcel Proust

2. Listening is a magnetic and strange thing, a creative force. The friends who listen to us are the ones we move toward. When we are listened to, it creates us, makes us unfold and expand. -Karl Menninger

3. If ever there is a tomorrow when we’re not together, there is something you must always remember: you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. -Winnie The Pooh

4. In the end though maybe we must all give up trying to pay back the people in this world who sustain our lives. In the end maybe it’s wiser to surrender before the miraculous scope of human generosity and to just keep saying thank you forever and sincerely for as long as we have voices. -Elizabeth Gilbert

5. Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another: ‘What! You too? I thought I was the only one.' -C.S. Lewis

6. A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow. -William Shakespeare

7. A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. -Walter Winchell

8. True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable. -David Tyson

9. A friend is one who knows you and loves you just the same. –Elbert Hubbard

10. My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me. -Henry Ford

11. Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes heart warm. -Augustine Birrell

12. A friend is someone who makes it easy to believe in yourself. – Heidi Wills

13. Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow ripening fruit. –Aristotle

14. If you have one true friend you have more than your share. –Thomas Fuller

15. There’s not a word yet for old friends who’ve just met. -Jim Henson

16. True friendship comes when the silence between two people is comfortable. -David Tyson

17. One loyal friend is worth ten thousand relatives. –Euripides

18. True friendship can afford true knowledge. It does not depend on darkness and ignorance. –Henry David Thoreau

19. A true friend is one who overlooks your failures and tolerates your success! –Doug Larson

20. A friend is an emotional bond, just like friendship is a human experience. –Simon Sinek

21. A real friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out. -Walter Winchell

22. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life. -Amy Poehler

23. The language of friendship is not words but meanings. –Henry David Thoreau

24. The great thing about new friends is that they bring new energy to your soul. –Shanna Rodriguez

25. Things are never quite as scary when you’ve got a best friend. –Bill Watterson

26. Friendship is the hardest thing in the world to explain. It’s not something you learn in school. But if you haven’t learned the meaning of friendship, you really haven’t learned anything. -Muhammad Ali

27. I would rather walk with a friend in the dark, than alone in the light. -Helen Keller

28. Friendship is a plant of slow growth and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation. – George Washington

29. The real test of friendship is: can you literally do nothing with the other person? Can you enjoy those moments of life that are utterly simple? –Eugene Kennedy

30. Of all possessions a friend is the most precious. –Herodotus

31. Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes. -Henry David Thoreau

32. Growing apart doesn’t change the fact that for a long time we grew side by side; our roots will always be tangled. I’m glad for that. -Ally Condie

33. Friendship consists in forgetting what one gives and remembering what one receives. -Alexander Dumas

Thank You Quotes and Sayings

34. I don’t need a friend who changes when I change and who nods when I nod; my shadow does that much better. -Plutarch

35. Friendship is the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person, having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words. -George Eliot

36. My definition of a friend is somebody who adores you even though they know the things you’re most ashamed of. -Jodie Foster

37. Some people go to priests; others to poetry; I to my friends. -Virginia Woolf

38. Friendship is a pretty full-time occupation if you really are friendly with somebody. You can’t have too many friends because then you’re just not really friends. -Truman Capote

39. Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it’s all over. -Octavia Butler

40. Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit. -Kahlil Gibran

41. Friendship is a wildly underrated medication. –Anna Deavere Smith

42. A friend is one of the nicest things you can have and one of the best things you can be. -Winnie The Pooh

43. Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart. -Eleanor Roosevelt

44. You find out who your real friends are when you’re involved in a scandal. -Elizabeth Taylor

45. A man’s friendships are one of the best measures of his worth. -Charles Darwin

46. A good friend is like a four-leaf clover; hard to find and lucky to have. -Irish Proverb

47. When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands. -Maria Shriver

48. Friendship is a sheltering tree. -Samuel Taylor Coleridge

49. Friendship isn’t about who you’ve known the longest, it’s about who walked in to your life, said ‘I’m here for you,’ and proved it. -Unknown

50. Friendship is a strong and habitual inclination in two persons to promote the good and happiness of one another. -Eustace Budgell

51. Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity. -Khalil Gibran

52. There are no rules for friendship. It must be left to itself. We cannot force it any more than love. -William Hazlitt

53. Friendship is something that creates equality and mutuality, not a reward for finding equality or a way of intensifying existing mutuality. -Rowan Williams

54. A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself – and especially to feel, or not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at any moment is fine with them. -Jim Morrison

55. A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself. -Unknown

56. A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you. -Elbert Hubbard

57. Sitting silently beside a friend who is hurting may be the best gift we can give. -Unknown

58. Friends show their love in times of trouble, not in happiness. -Euripides

59. Friends are medicine for a wounded heart and vitamins for a hopeful soul. -Steve Maraboli

True Friendship Quotes

60. The most I can do for my friend is simply to be his friend. I have no wealth to bestow on him. If he knows that I am happy in loving him, he will want no other reward. Is not friendship divine in this? -Henry David Thoreau

61. A friend is one before whom I may think aloud. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

62. Friendship marks a life even more deeply than love. Love risks degenerating into obsession, friendship is never anything but sharing. -Elie Wiesel

63. Of all the things which wisdom provides to make us entirely happy, much the greatest is the possession of friendship. -Epicurus

64. A true friend is someone who is there for you when he’d rather be anywhere else. -Len Wein

65. I have learned that to be with those I like is enough. -Walt Whitman

66. Be slow to fall into friendship, but when thou art in, continue firm and constant. -Socrates

67. We’re born alone, we live alone, we die alone. Only through our love and friendship can we create the illusion for the moment that we’re not alone. -Orson Welles

68. Friendship is the source of the greatest pleasures, and without friends even the most agreeable pursuits become tedious. -Thomas Aquinas

69. Friendship multiplies the good of life and divides the evil. -Baltasar Gracian

70. I awoke this morning with devout thanksgiving for my friends, the old and the new. -Ralph Waldo Emerson

71. A friend is one soul abiding in two bodies. -Aristotle

72. All love that has not friendship for its base, is like a mansion built upon the sand. -Ella Wheeler Wilcox

73. Everyone has a friend during each stage of life. But only lucky ones have the same friend in all stages of life. -Unknown

74. The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not knowing… not healing, not curing… that is a friend who cares. -Henri Nouwen

75. F.R.I.E.N.D.S. Fight for you. Respect you. Include you. Encourage you. Need you. Deserve you. Stand by you. -Unknown

76. The ideal friendship is to feel as one while remaining two. -Sophie Swetchine

77. No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another. -Charles Dickens

78. One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention. -Clifton Fadiman

79. As soon as I saw you, I knew an adventure was going to happen. -Winnie The Pooh

80. Friends… they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams. -Henry David Thoreau

81. Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art… It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. -C.S. Lewis

82. Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. -Anais Nin

83. One friend in a storm is worth more than a thousand friends in sunshine. -Matshona Dhliwayo

84. The rule of friendship means there should be mutual sympathy between them, each supplying what the other lacks and trying to benefit the other, always using friendly and sincere words. -Cicero

85. There is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. I have no notion of loving people by halves, it is not my nature. -Jane Austen

86. Perhaps the most delightful friendships are those in which there is much agreement, much disputation, and yet more personal liking. -George Eliot

87. Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief.” –Cicero

88. Friends are the siblings God never gave us. -Mencius

89. That’s when I realized what a true friend was. Someone who would always love you – the imperfect you, the confused you, the wrong you – because that is what people are supposed to do. -Unknown

90. Real friendship is when your friend comes over to your house and then you both just take a nap. -Unknown

91. One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. -Seneca

92. The most ordinary things could be made extraordinary, simply by doing them with the right people. -Nicholas Sparks

93. Laughter is not at all a bad beginning for a friendship, and it is far the best ending for one. -Oscar Wilde

94. A true friend is someone who sees the pain in your eyes while everyone else believes the smile on your face. -Unknown

95. It’s the friends you can call up at 4 a.m. that matter. -Marlene Dietrich

96. A quarrel between friends, when made up, adds a new tie to friendship. -Saint Francis de Sales

97. There is nothing better than a friend, unless it is a friend with chocolate. -Linda Grayson

98. Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. -Oprah Winfrey

99. If there ever comes a day when we can’t be together, keep me in your heart, I’ll stay there forever. -Winnie The Pooh

Thank You Quotes for Friends for Birthday Wishes

100. Celebrate your birthday today. Celebrate being happy every day. -Unknown

101. Let us never know what old age is. Let us know the happiness time brings, not count the years. – Ausonius

102. Happy birthday, friend. May your day be as beautiful as you. – Unknown

103. You have been there for me no matter what. I love you, my dear friend, and I am so excited to share your special day with you. Your birthday is going to be truly special. – Unknown

104. Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been. – Mark Twain

105. Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you! – Dr. Seuss

106. Just remember, once you’re over the hill you begin to pick up speed. – Charles Schulz

107. As you get older, three things happen: The first is your memory goes, and I can't remember the other two. Happy Birthday! – Norman Wisdom

Spiritual Thank You Quotes for Friends

108. True friends are like bright sunflowers that never fade away, even over distance and time. To have such friends is a gift from the divine. – Marie Williams Johnstone

109. In the garden of life, true friends are the flowers that make the soul bloom with joy. – Saint Augustine

110. The bond between true friends is so strong that it becomes a treasured spiritual connection, transcending the material realm. – Thomas Aquinas

111. Friends are angels who lift us to our feet when our wings have trouble remembering how to fly. – Saint Therese of Lisieux

112. The holy passion of Friendship is so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.” – Mark Twain

113. A friend is a gift you give yourself. And in the giving, you find the true beauty of spiritual connection. – Robert Louis Stevenson

114. In the mirror of a friend, one can see the divine reflected. True friendship is the universe's way of speaking to us. – Swami Vivekananda

115. Friendship is the purest love. – Osho

116. Friendship is a sacred sanctuary, where one can express the deepest parts of themselves without fear of judgment. – Joan Chittister

117. A friend is a companion who, amidst the chaos of life, provides a taste of heaven on earth. – John O'Donohue

How will you use these quotes about being thankful for someone?

Now that you have this list of thank you quotes for friends, how do you plan to use them? There are so many ways you can share these words of gratitude with the friends who mean so much to you.

Send an appreciation quote to your friend by text.
Leave inspirational thank you quotes on your friends’ car or in their mailboxes.
Have a mug printed with your favorite cute thank you quotes for friends.
Send out old-fashioned letters with funny thank you quotes for friends to brighten their day.

It just takes a few minutes of writing or texting to make someone’s day and let them know you are thinking of them.

If your friends mean the world to you, don’t neglect to let them know. Because that’s what friends do.

The Benefits of Reading and Sharing Thank You for Friendship Quotes