Friends Who Make You Better

Confucius offers one of the most practical taxonomies of friendship in world literature. Beneficial friends possess three qualities: directness (直), trustworthiness (諒), and breadth of learning (多聞). Harmful friends are the opposite: they flatter, dissemble, and dazzle with smooth words. The classification is not moralistic—it is empirical. One's friends shape one's character as surely as water shapes stone.