Books like friends, should be few and well-chosen.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of selecting quality friends, just as one should select quality books.
Samuel Johnson suggests that, like friendships, the books we choose to engage with should be few in number yet significant in impact. This implies that our time and attention are better spent on a small number of meaningful friendships and books that enrich our lives, rather than being overwhelmed by a multitude of superficial options.
In practice
In a speech about the importance of reading, you could quote this to highlight how valuable friendships are.
To be of no church is dangerous. Religion, of which the rewards are distant, and which is animated only by faith and hope, will glide by degrees out of the mind unless it be invigorated and reimpressed by external ordinances, by stated calls to worship, and the salutary influence of example.
He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.
To let friendship die away by negligence and silence is certainly not wise. It is voluntarily to throw away one of the greatest comforts of the weary pilgrimage.
Fly-fishing may be a very pleasant amusement; but angling or float fishing I can only compare to a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other.
When any anxiety or gloom of the mind takes hold of you, make it a rule not to publish it by complaining; but exert yourselves to hide it, and by endeavoring to hide it you drive it away.
A fishing rod is a stick with a hook at one end and a fool at the other.
Looking back, I am grateful for so many friends who helped me in my youth to gain a testimony of the restored Church of Jesus Christ. First, I exercised simple faith in their testimonies, and then I received the divine witness of the Spirit to my mind and to my heart.
Strangers he gulls, but friends make fun of him.
Bluegrass has brought more people together and made more friends than any music in the world. You meet people at festivals and renew acquaintances year after year.
My best friend is me, and I take good care of me.
You don't appreciate things until they're gone. For me, I miss my friends; I don't miss boxing, I miss the camaraderie.
Service cannot be expected from a friend in service; let him be a freeman who wishes to be my master.
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