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• A companion is but another self; wherefore it is an argument that a man is wicked if he keep company with the wicked.
  • Clement of Rome
  • The original text may be in Greek, unless it is misattributed.

• It is certain that either wise bearing or ignorant carriage is caught as men take diseases one of another; therefore, let men take heed of their company.
  • William Shakespeare

• Let them have ever so learned lectures of breeding, that which will most influence their carriage will be the company they converse with, and the fashion of those about them.
  • John Locke

• Nature has left every man a capacity of being agreeable, though not of shining in company; and there are a hundred men sufficiently qualified for both who, by a very few faults, that they might correct in half an hour, are not so much as tolerable.
  • Jonathan Swift

• The most agreeable of all companions is a simple, frank man, without any high pretensions to an oppressive greatness; one who loves life, and understands the use of it; obliging alike at all hours; above all, of a golden temper and steadfast as an anchor. For such an one we gladly exchange the greatest genius, the most brilliant wit, the profoundest thinker.
  • Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
  • The original text may be in German.

• No man can possibly improve in any company for which he has not respect enough to be under some degree of restraint.
  • Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield