Pondere Non Numero

Friends should be weigh'd, not told; who boasts to have won A multitude of friends, he ne'er had one.

First published in Morning Post, Dec. 26, 1801. Included in Essays, &c., iii. 978. First collected in 1893. Adapted from Friedrich von Logan's Sinngedicht (Lessing's edition, Bk. II, No. 65).

'Freunde muss man sich erwählen Nur nach Wägen, nicht nach Zählen.'

Cf. also Logan, Book II, No. 30.

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