Socrates to his Friends

3.09. SOCRATES TO HIS FRIENDS. The name of a friend is common; but fidelity is rarely found.
Socrates having laid for himself the foundation of a small house (a man, whose death I would not decline, if I could acquire similar fame, and like him I could yield to envy, if I might be but acquitted when ashes); one of the people, no matter who, amongst such passing remarks as are usual in these cases, asked: “Why do you, so famed as you are, build so small a house?”
“I only wish,” he replied, “I could fill it with real friends.” [more info]

A Saying of Socrates

3.08. A SAYING OF SOCRATES.
Though common be the name of friend,
Few can to faithfulness pretend,
That Socrates (whose cruel case,
I’d freely for his fame embrace,
And living any envy bear
To leave my character so fair)
Was building of a little cot,
When some one, standing on the spot,
Ask’d, as the folks are apt to do,
“How comes so great a man as you
Content with such a little hole?”—
“I wish,” says he, “with all my soul
That this same little house I build
Was with true friends completely fill’d.” [more info]

The Words of Socrates

04.17: THE WORDS OF SOCRATES.
A house was built by Socrates
That failed the public taste to please.
Some blamed the inside; some, the out; and all
Agreed that the apartments were too small.
Such rooms for him, the greatest sage of Greece!
'I ask,' said he, 'no greater bliss
Than real friends to fill e'en this.'
And reason had good Socrates
To think his house too large for these.
A crowd to be your friends will claim,
Till some unhandsome test you bring.
There's nothing plentier than the name;
There's nothing rarer than the thing.
[more info]