Friends, don't get too comfortable around them

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the biggest mistake we can all make is to depend on people too much regardless of who they are to us, history has demonstrated that forming an ally with a former enemy is more profitable than with the closest friend
in fact most of the bitter truth about one's attitude is often unraveled to us, not by our friends but mostly by our enemies.

most friends are only very useful when they have something to gain from your friendship

navigating friendships may be one of the hardest task on earth, as most friends always pretend they have your best interest in heart, but deep down everybody is just fighting for what's best for them.
though there are real people who would be a real friend to you with the best of intentions but many are later aroused with envy

There are three things I would tell my younger self about on friendship and these three things are,

Don't expect too much from a friend
to avoid having a heartbreak, don't expect perfection from a friend, as human beings we tend to expect certain qualities or character from a person we love that we almost forget that human beings are creation of errors, not the type you clean with an eraser but errors that may stick with you for life, we need to realize that no body can please us more than ourselves.

when dealing with friends your love for them must be measured
sounds cynical right? not being able to measure our love for friends can be very fatal, too much love for a friend can make us overlook damaging attitudes in a friend which can later come back to hurt us
this can be related to the mid-ninth century A.D in the Byzantine Empire when Michael III assumed the throne but he didn't live long because of his blind love for Basilius, who later betrayed him, he didn't believe he could be killed by the person he loved the most even more than his own mother until his head ended up on a pike.

Don't look for an enemy in a friend but make friends out of your enemies
overtime history has demonstrated that friends has destroyed themselves more than an enemy has ever done, the powerful, the influential and the rich has since suffered from this dilemma in centuries, take a brief memory of the spartan and Athenian empires, these empires are both from the same mother, Greece, they fought tough enemies on their own both conquering territories but only to be destroyed by themselves so utterly that they both cease to exist, if you must claim power from a friend make it seem it's for his own best interest.

Know how to use enemies for your own profit. You must learn to grab a sword not by its blade but by the handle, which allows you to defend yourself. The wise man profits more from his enemies, than a fool from his friends.(Baltasar Gracian)