An English publication offered a prize for the best definition of a friend, and among the thousands of answers received were the following:

“One who multiplies joys, divides grief.”

“One who understands our silence.”

“A volume of sympathy bound in cloth.”

“A watch which beats true for all time and never runs down.”

But here is the definition that won the prize: “A friend—the one who comes in when the whole world has gone out.”