Carlin Flora > Quotes

“Friendship is often the special catalyst required for us to reach our aims. Whether you’re trying to finish college or run a marathon, having a friend beside you, pursuing the same objective, eases and quickens the journey. One study provides a particularly touching metaphor for the concept while proving its strength: Researchers had subjects wear backpacks while standing at the bottom of a hill. They then estimated the hill’s steepness. Some were next to friends, and others stood alone. Being with friends made subjects perceive the hill as less steep; being with long-term friends decreased their estimate of the hill’s steepness even more.”
― Carlin Flora, Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are

“The closest of friendships contain the mysterious spark of attraction and connection as well as drama, tension, envy, sacrifice, and love. For some, it’s the highest form of love there is.”
― Carlin Flora, Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are

“don’t insist that they be everything to us; thus we are less disappointed when a friend falls short in a certain way than we are when a parent or spouse does the same.”
― Carlin Flora, Friendfluence: The Surprising Ways Friends Make Us Who We Are

“Children under the age of ten are extraordinarily loyal to their parents,” write the authors of Best Friends, Worst Enemies. By age thirteen, they begin seeing their parents’ flaws and share astute observations about them with buddies.”
― Carlin Flora, Friendfluence: The Hidden Ways in Which Friendships Shape Our Characters and Life Chances from Infancy to Old Age