“Before you make a friend, eat a bushel of salt with him.”

— George Herbert, Jacula Prudentum (1651)

About George Herbert

1593 – 1633

Welsh-born English poet and Anglican priest, compiler of the proverb collection 'Jacula Prudentum' (1651).

“My house, my house, though thou art small, thou art to me the Escurial.”

“Laugh not too much; the witty man laughs least: for wit is news only to ignorance.”

“Man is one world, and hath Another to attend him.”

“Wishing to be friends is quick work, but friendship is a slow-ripening fruit.”

“Thou canst not joke an Enemy into a Friend; but thou may'st a Friend into an Enemy.”

“By perseverance the snail reached the ark.”

“Friendship is born at the moment when one person says to another, 'What! You too? I thought I was the only one.'”

“Surround yourself only with people who are going to take you higher.”

Attribution note: Source disputed or unverified.

“To be kind to all, to like many and love a few, to be needed and wanted by those we love, is certainly the nearest we can come to happiness.”