“Friendship, 'tis said, is love without his wings, / And friendship, sir, is sweet enough for me.”

— Alfred Austin, Savonarola, 1881

About Alfred Austin

1835 – 1913

English poet, Poet Laureate from 1896 to 1913.

“Knowledge is to the imagination what fuel is to flame.”

“Hospitality should be accidental, spontaneous, and impulsive, not pre-arranged and calculated.”

“Let your house / Be spacious more than splendid, and be books / And busts your most conspicuous furniture.”

“Let love steal in disguised as friendship.”

“So long as the memory of certain beloved friends lives in my heart I shall say that life is good.”

“Friendship often ends in love; but love in friendship—never.”

“Love is like the wild rose-briar; Friendship like the holly-tree.”

“Life often seems like a long shipwreck, of which the débris are friendship, fame, and love.”

“Friendship loves a free Air, and will not be penned up in streight and narrow Enclosures.”