Friendship Is Like Love With More Letters In It

FRIENDSHIP IS LIKE LOVE WITH MORE LETTERS IN IT: Children’s Colorful Views of Friendship is a collection of laugh-out-loud humor and poignant commentary on the universal phenomenon of friendship, based on the original and spontaneous observations of youngsters, ages 4 to 13. This sweet book is as funny as it is insightful, and it gently moves the reader - whether eight or eighty - to reflect on a person’s own friendships throughout the course of his or her life. This delightful compendium covers many, many light-hearted and engaging subjects anything that might emerge and shape and color a friendship. The young philosophers and humorists expound on these and numerous other topics: what were the world’s first friendships like, how do most contemporary friendships begin, what type of person should you select, how do you build a friendship, how are female friendships different than male friendships, what every true friendship must possess, how friends are different than relatives, and what are some of the most colorful reasons that friends sometimes argue. In response to such intriguing topics, the youngest do indeed say some of the darndest things about friendship and their friends. Here are a few choice morsels of wisdom: “Friendship is a ‘ship’ that can have two people on it, and it can float good without the people having to steer too much.” (Maurice, age 11) “Friends are like two pennies because they just seem to make sense together.” (Kera, age 9) “To get someone to be your friend, buy them a friendship card and show them it cost you a lot by drawing a red circle around the price.” (Ryan, age 9) “Every good friendship needs to have enough shared toys to get through the rough times.” (Mitch, age 7) “In friendship, you share things like cookies. In love, you might share bigger stuff like children.” (Chung, age 10) “Remember that you don’t ever buy friendship with money or gold, you earn it with respect.” (Rodney, age 9) “A friend in need is a friend who hands you a tissue when your nose is running.” (Marie, age 6)

In these letters, de Beauvoir tells Sartre everything, tracing the extraordinary complications of their triangular love life; they reveal her not only as manipulative and dependent, but also as vulnerable, passionate, jealous, and committed.

By attacking Epicurean philosophy repeatedly in his public writings, Cicero established himself as one of Epicurus’ most fervent critics. The remarks that he makes about Epicureanism in his letters further suggest a genuine conviction that such a philosophy had no place in Roman society. This consistency in Cicero’s statements has led most scholars to assume that Cicero could not have embraced any of the principles of the Epicurean school. This book challenges the conventional view of Cicero as someone who completely rejected Epicurean philosophy-even in his private life-because of its utilitarian character. It argues that his relationship with Pompey, Caesar, Atticus, Quintus, Terentia, and Tullia encompassed several aspects of Aristotle’s account of φιλία (love and friendship) but was, nonetheless, ultimately based on expediency, in accord with Epicurus’ conception of φιλία. While Cicero’s statements in his public speeches and his letters to men with an active public life have been scrutinised for his lack of candour or for his tendency to exaggerate his achievements, the claims found in his letters to Atticus and to his family have not been treated with equal caution, as they tend be taken at face value. The book highlights the large number of discrepancies in his remarks and argues that, despite his anti-Epicurean statements, personal benefit played a vital role in all of his relationships.