Поговорки

A friend in need is a friend indeed.

A friend who will support you when you are in need of help is a true friend

Variant: A friend in need is a friend in deed

The petitioners for compensations had begun to regard the Poultry and Damage Fund as a regular friend in need, and complaints from poultry farmers were far too frequent.

( Siegfried Sassoon, Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man, 1928)

A friend in need is a friend to be avoided.

( Lord Samuel )

Men have pondered upon the nature of true friendship since ancient times and, unsurprisingly, have concluded that the test of a relationship comes in time of difficulty. Aesop tells of two friends who were travelling together when they saw a bear. One of them quickly climbed a nearby tree, the other, seeing no chance of escape, lay down on the ground pretending to be dead. The bear began to nuzzle him, and he held his breath, for no bear will touch a corpse. At last bear gave up and went away and the man’s companion came down from the safety of his tree. «What was it that the bear was whispering in your ear?» he asked.  «The wise bear advised me not to travel in future with friends who abandon one in times of trouble came the reply.  Bartlett traces the proverb back to the playwright Plautus who, in Epidicus (200 bc), writes: nothing is there more friendly to a man than a friend in need.

Honesty is the best policy

Truthfulness and square-dealing are sound foundations for living.

I am afraid we must make the world honest before we can honestly say to our children that honesty is the best policy.

( George Bernard Shaw, Radio Address, 11 July 1932)

ARIES ( Caroline Bone, Robert Snell, Helen Archer): You have tendency to be little too frank when dealing with some people. Now although I agree that honesty is the best policy, there are ways and means. So make your 1992 resolution to think before you speak.

( Ambridge Village Voice, Lambing Issue, Spring 1992)