Quote of the Day (Aristotle, on the Multiple Benefits of Friendship)

“Without friends no one would choose to live, though he had all other goods; even rich men and those in possession of office and of dominating power are thought to need friends most of all; for what is the use of such prosperity without the opportunity of beneficence, which is exercised chiefly and in its most laudable form towards friends? Or how can prosperity be guarded and preserved without friends? The greater it is, the more exposed is it to risk. And in poverty and in other misfortunes men think friends are the only refuge. It helps the young, too, to keep from error; it aids older people by ministering to their needs and supplementing the activities that are failing from weakness; those in the prime of life it stimulates to noble actions-'two going together'-for with friends men are more able both to think and to act….Friendship seems too to hold states together, and lawgivers to care more for it than for justice; for unanimity seems to be something like friendship, and this they aim at most of all, and expel faction as their worst enemy; and when men are friends they have no need of justice, while when they are just they need friendship as well, and the truest form of justice is thought to be a friendly quality.”—Greek philosopher Aristotle (384 BC 322 BC), Nichomachean Ethics, translated by W. D. Ross (350 BC)

Is there anyone out there on Planet Earth who doesn’t know who these friends are? Very well, then: they are Harry Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe), Hermione Granger (Emma Watson), and Ron Weasley (Rupert Grint), schoolmates through eight cinematic adventures in the super-profitable "Harry Potter" franchise.

Hopefully, none of us will ever have the harrowing confrontations with evil that this trio must endure. But friendship is indeed the balm and refuge that Aristotle describes, as I have rediscovered in the past couple of weeks in encounters with friends who go back with me nearly 60 years, to our first years in elementary school.

Maybe Harry, Hermione and Ron will be so lucky!