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Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence. True friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.

George Washington

to Bushrod Washington, January 15, 1783 quoted in Maxims of Washington, collected and arranged by John Frederick Schroeder for The Mount Vernon Ladies' Association, 1942

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