The Complete Aristotle (eng.)

few
such.
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11
    Do we need friends more in good fortune or in bad? They are
sought after in both; for while men in adversity need help, in
prosperity they need people to live with and to make the objects of
their beneficence; for they wish to do well by others. Friendship,
then, is more necessary in bad fortune, and so it is useful friends
that one wants in this case; but it is more noble in good fortune,
and so we also seek for good men as our friends, since it is more
desirable to confer benefits on these and to live with these. For
the very presence of friends is pleasant both in good fortune and
also in bad, since grief is lightened when friends sorrow with us.
Hence one might ask whether they share as it were our burden,
or-without that happening-their presence by its pleasantness, and
the thought of their grieving with us, make our pain less. Whether
it is for these reasons or for some other that our grief is
lightened, is a question that may be dismissed; at all events what
we have described appears to take place.
    But their presence seems to contain a mixture of various
factors. The very seeing of one’s friends is pleasant, especially
if one is in adversity, and becomes a safeguard against grief (for
a friend tends to comfort us both by the sight of him and by his
words, if he is tactful, since he knows our character and the
things that please or pain us); but to see him pained at our
misfortunes is painful; for every one shuns being a cause of pain
to his friends. For this reason people of a manly nature guard
against making their friends grieve with them, and, unless he be
exceptionally insensible to pain, such a man cannot stand the pain
that ensues for his friends, and in general does not admit
fellow-mourners because he is not himself given to mourning; but
women and womanly men enjoy sympathisers in their grief, and love
them as friends and companions in sorrow. But in all things one
obviously ought to imitate the better type of person.
    On the other hand, the presence of friends in our prosperity
implies both a pleasant passing of our time and the pleasant
thought of their pleasure at our own good fortune. For this cause
it would seem that we ought to summon our friends readily to share
our good fortunes (for the beneficent character is a noble one),
but summon them to our bad fortunes with hesitation; for we ought
to give them as little a share as possible in our evils whence the
saying ‘enough is my misfortune’. We should summon friends to us
most of all when they are likely by suffering a few inconveniences
to do us a great service.
    Conversely, it is fitting to go unasked and readily to the aid
of those in adversity (for it is characteristic of a friend to
render services, and especially to those who are in need and have
not demanded them; such action is nobler and pleasanter for both
persons); but when our friends are prosperous we should join
readily in their activities (for they need friends for these too),
but be tardy in coming forward to be the objects of their kindness;
for it is not noble to be keen to receive benefits. Still, we must
no doubt avoid getting the reputation of kill-joys by repulsing
them; for that sometimes happens.
    The presence of friends, then, seems desirable in all
circumstances.
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12
    Does it not follow, then, that, as for lovers the sight of the
beloved is the thing they love most, and they prefer this sense to
the others because on it love depends most for its being and for
its origin, so for friends the most desirable thing is living
together? For friendship is a partnership, and as a man is to
himself, so is he to his friend; now in his own case the
consciousness of his being is desirable, and so therefore is the
consciousness of his friend’s being, and the activity of this
consciousness is produced when they live together, so that it is
natural that they aim at this. And whatever existence means for
each class of men, whatever it is for whose sake they value life,
in that they wish to occupy themselves with their friends; and so
some drink together, others dice together, others join in athletic
exercises and hunting, or in the study of philosophy, each class
spending their days together in whatever they love most in life;
for since they wish to live with their friends, they do and share
in those things which give them the sense of living together. Thus
the friendship of bad men turns out an