As I’ve grown older, my friendships have taken on a deeper meaning. Today, many of my friendships are not only intentional, but are a choice each of us makes to stay connected. This is a far cry from when I made friends just because we were in the same space doing similar things.
It has come a long way from the halls of my college dorm and the water fountain at my first job.
Perhaps you can relate.
Maybe you have seen your friendships evolve over the last decade, from friendships built on convenience to friendships built by choice.
Whatever the case may be, I imagine we cannot deny the power of having people who love and encourage us through various stages of our lives.
I think our 30s is a decade that invites us to a deeper kind of sisterhood, one that is rooted in shared values, real love, and alignment. These are the kind that challenge you, hold you, and celebrate you.
If you’ve ever struggled with letting go of a friend, craved deeper connections, or simply wanted to celebrate the women who show up for you, then these friendship quotes are just what you need.
I have curated these powerful friendships quotes into 6 themed sections, they are a reminder for the woman coming into her own in her 30s, each quote serving as a gentle nudge toward reflection, growth, and gratitude.
Friendship Quotes on Growth & Change
- “Some people arrive and make such a beautiful impact on your life, you can barely remember what life was like without them.” – Anna Taylor
2. “Fine a group of people who challenge and inspire you; spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life.” – Amy Poehler
3. “No person is your friend (or kin) who demands your silence, or denies your right to grow.” – Alice Walker, “In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens”
4. “I always felt that the great high privilege, relief and comfort of friendship was that one had to explain nothing.” – Katherine Mansfield
5. “True happiness consists not in the multitude of friends, but in the worth and choice.” Ben Johnson
6. “Friends…they cherish one another’s hopes. They are kind to one another’s dreams.” Henry David Thoreau, “A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers”
Friendship Quotes on Loyalty & Trust
7. “A friend is someone who knows all about you and still loves you.” – Elbert Hubbard
8. “I don’t know what I would have done so many times in my life if I hadn’t had my girlfriends. They have literally gotten me up out of bed, taken my clothes off, put me in the shower, dressed me, said, ‘Hey, you can do this,’ put my high heels on and pushed me out the door!” – Reese Witherspoon
9. “Friendship is a sheltering tree.” – Taylor Coleridge
10. “A friend is one who overlooks your broken fence and admires the flowers in your garden.” – Unknown
11. “Good friends are like stars. You don’t always see them, but you know they’re always there.” – Christy Evans
12. “In prosperity our friends know us; in adversity we know our friends.” – John Churton Collins
Friendship Quotes on Shared Joy
13. “Best friends are the people in your life who make you laugh louder, smile brighter, and live better.” – Unknown
14. “Friendship improves happiness, and abates misery, by doubling our joys, and dividing our grief.” – Marcus Tullius Cicero
15. “Friends are those rare people who ask how we are, and then wait to hear the answer.” – Ed Cunningham
16. “It’s not that diamonds are a girl’s best friend, but it’s your best friends who are your diamonds.” – Gina Barreca
17. “Let us be grateful to the people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” – Marcel Proust
18. “Friendship is a wildly underrated medication.” – Anna Deavere Smith
Friendship Quotes on Boundaries
19. “The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart.” – Elisabeth Foley
20. “Two things you will never have to chase: True friends & true love.” – Mandy Hale
21. “A best friend is the only one that walks into your life when the world has walked out.” – Shannon I. Adler
22. “When the world is so complicated, the simple gift of friendship is within all of our hands.” – Maria Shriver
23. “True friendship is when two friends can walk in opposite directions, yet remain side by side. – Josh Grayson
24. “Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Friendship Quotes on Lifelong Connection
25. “True friendship resists time, distance, and silence.” – Isabel Allende
26. “A good friend is a connection to life- a tie to the past, a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world.” – Lois Wyse
27. “Truly great friends are hard to find, difficult to leave, and impossible to forget.” – G. Randolf
28. “There are three things that grow more precious with age; old wood to burn, old books to read, and old friends to enjoy.” – Henry Ford
29. “Time doesn’t take away from friendship, nor does separation.” – Tennessee Williams, “Memoirs”
30. “True friends are never apart, maybe in distance but never in heart.” – Helen Keller
Why Friendships Matter in Your 30s
Thank you for taking time to read these 30 powerful friendship quotes for women. I hope they gave you room to the need for deeper connections and intentional sisterhood over performative interactions.
Could you share which of these quotes resonated with you most and why? Perhaps you have a friendship you need to rekindle or release.
I hope these quotes act as a reminder of the beauty and richness of true friendships.
