True friends bring out the best in you. They make your life sweeter with their words, their presence, their actions, and behaviors. They enhance you, they enhance your life, and they make you want to become a better person.

Real friends naturally boost your self-esteem and in turn, helping out a good friend [in this way] can help you feel better about yourself as well.

Real friends identify them in a mindful manner not to be spiteful, but for accountability’s sake. “They’re able to point out some of the negative things you’re doing in addition to the positive,” Rowney says. “They really support you on both sides.”

A real friend stays present in the moment by paying attention to your needs along with theirs.

How many times have you tried to have a conversation with someone, only for that person to turn the topic back to him or herself? Somehow the venting moments and the catch-up sessions aren’t quite as fulfilling. Conversations with real friends aren’t one-sided.

Being able to have an open, two-way dialogue with someone improves the chances that the relationship is going to be stronger.

People who are good listeners validate other people’s feelings,It shows that what they’re saying makes sense.

It’s one thing to have friends who provide support during times of success. But genuine friends are there through all of our peaks and valleys — the grief, the joy, the failures and everything in between.

To be able to know someone enough and to trust them enough to even allow them to support you through tough times is a sign of real friendships, the people who are in your life like that are about as close to family as you can get.

Genuine friends can sense duress — and thereby assist in making better decisions, Rowney says. And even when we’re not looking for advice, their presence alone can calm us. One 2011 study found that just spending time with a best friend can help beat stress.

While genuine friends celebrate our every accomplishment, they also remind us of our roots. Good friends will keep you in check to some degree and not let your head get oversized, they know the deep-down, base version of you. So not only will they support you when you succeed,but they remind you of where you came from.

Close friends always step up and take the initiative — even if it’s something the other person may not want to hear. Supportiveness is crucial in friendships.

Honesty isn’t always an easy thing, but it’s important to your bond. Swallowing that pill and being the best friend you can by being open with them always works out better.

Real friends understand, and because they understand they are capable of forgiving.

Rowney says real friends not only stick with us as we grow, but they also make us want to be better versions of ourselves. Friends aren’t just confidants, but role models. Their kindness and other attributes, genuine friends bring out the best in us — which is one of the greatest gifts they could ever give.

Much like with family members, you can go extended stretches of weeks or months without talking and hanging out consistently, yet there’s no doubts about your relationship. Schedules get busy, circumstances arise, but your friendship remains fully intact.

Rarely do you discover anything about what’s going on with them on social networks. You don’t need Facebook to tell you it’s their birthday, or Instagram to see who they were with and where they went last night.

They don’t let you do anything stupid – at least not by yourself.

During the lowest of lows, they don’t give up on you even if you’ve given up on yourself.

There are silences, but they don’t feel the least bit uncomfortable or awkward. If you can sit down and shut up with a person, never feeling obligated to fill that hushed void, you’ve got a special connection. 

True friends make you want to be a better person, just because they make you feel happy, positive and remind you just how amazing you are. They enhance your life and make you want to strive to be the best you can be. True friends look for the good in the bad, not the bad in every situation.

A true friend will always be honest, no matter how hard the situation is. Sure, not everybody is brutally honest, but true friends will tell you if they hear your boyfriend is cheating on you, they will tell you that you have lipstick on your teeth and most importantly, they won’t lie to you about the little things.

One of the biggest indicators of true friendship is if the other person allows you to be yourself, with no judgement. If they’re putting you down about the way you look, act, think or behave, chances are they’re not true friends and want to change you to suit their agenda.

Some people fall off the grid or stop hanging out with their friends once they are in a relationship. Real friends try to balance it out and make time for you.

Real friends are basically free therapists. They will sit you down when you’re upset, listen to you explain your problem and give their honest advice on how to help you, whereas fake friends ignore your problems and focus on themselves.

True friendship multiplies the good in life and divides its evils. Strive to have friends, for life without friends is like life on a desert island… to find one real friend in a lifetime is good fortune; to keep him is a blessing.

True friends inspire you to live your life to your full potential, to be better, not bitter, and to constantly look for the good in the bad, and the beautiful in the ugly.  Always remember, true friends, make you better, not bitter…

Friends can help each other. A true friend is someone who lets you have total freedom to be yourself – and especially to feel. Or, not feel. Whatever you happen to be feeling at the moment is fine with them. That’s what real love amounts to – letting a person be what he really is.

Your true friends, the people who truly love you, will never try convince you that you should be anything other than yourself. They give you the permission to just be. To be yourself, unapologetically, loving you for you, and not for who they think you should be. True friends give you permission to be yourself.

True friends rekindle your inner spirit by constantly reminding you of who you truly are underneath it all. Because they because they can see beyond all your insecurities, they will constantly remind you of who you truly are underneath it all, helping you tap into your inner beauty, wisdom, greatness, and power.

True friends will help you to live your life from a place of truth, light, love and integrity, no longer from a place of fear and doubt.

Its a completely useless emotion jealousy. I dont go there.

Some books I've kept because the binding is beautiful - I'm unlikely ever to read my grandmother's copy of 'The Life of Lord Nelson.' I'm addicted to secondhand bookshops.

I'm one of the most optimistic persons in the world. I always believed that - there's another shot, another chance. In boxing, I never gave up. I kept trying, kept trying. Even when things seemed so dim, I continued to push forward to make something happen in my favor.

Like Indiana Jones, I don't like snakes - though that might lead some to ask why I'm in politics.

I like singing all songs, really, but I find that writing social commentary comes naturally.

Reality is always extraordinary.

Just start thinking about all the different services in your life. Like getting your dry cleaning picked up and dropped off. Nobody has done the Uber of that yet. But that will be Uberfied. You will arrange your dry cleaning via your phone.

It took me 35 years of being involved at a decent level of football to become manager at a great club like Celtic.

I do not believe that I fell in love with a woman because I was abused.

I was watching 'Deal or No Deal' on YouTube recently, and I bawled when the contestant won £250,000. I think I just like watching people achieve their dreams.

I think people assumed because of my last name that I was a real right-winger. And if you cared to look at my writing, you would be hard pressed to deduce that I'm an ideological right-winger.

When we honestly ask ourselves which person in our lives means the most to us, we often find that it is those who, instead of giving advice, solutions, or cures, have chosen rather to share our pain and touch our wounds with a warm and tender hand.

Many great people have experience some kind of failure. They build on the lessons from failing to become great

Basically, the intersection between the animal world and the plant world is where life regenerates itself over and over, billions of times each day. It's the foundation of life on our planet.

I hope that readers will tear through my books because they can't stop themselves - and then, maybe, read them again and find new things there.

When I'm older, I want to have my own workout clothes line, like leggings and cute jackets in bright and fun colors.

I've never rejected the world I came from. To be rejected by it is horrible.

We each after a while have to become reconciled to what it is that our talents and appetites lead us.