What is a friend?

[infinite monkey]

The plot sickens:

Who the heck is Dinah Maria Mulock Craik?

http://www.searchquotes.com/quotatio...ether,_/14347/

One attributed to George Eliot:

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/127-...e-may-pour-out

One source claims Arabian Proverb (same site that claimed someone was in the kitchen with Dinah):

http://www.searchquotes.com/quotatio...ether,_/10806/

And one doesn't think anyone wrote it:

http://thinkexist.com/quotation/a_fr...the/15043.html

Well, I really hate that. Who wrote it, and who claimed to write it?

Mary Ann (Marian) Evans (Ms Eliot) lived from 1818-1890. Would an Arabian proverb predate that?

Imma go with Arabian proverb...there are some good ones, like this:

A fool may be known by six things: anger, without cause; speech, without profit; change, without progress; inquiry, without object; putting trust in a stranger, and mistaking foes for friends.

http://www.searchquotes.com/quotes/a...abian_Proverb/