<P><I>"A good companion shortens the longest road." —Turkish proverb</I></P><P><I>"Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love." —Jane Austen,</I> Northanger Abbey</P><P><I>"Cultivate solitude and quiet and a few sincere friends, rather than mob merriment, noise and thousands of nodding acquaintances." —William Powell</I></P><P><I>"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive." —Anäis Nin</I>