# Is this really a Shakespeare quote? "A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow." **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 24, 2022, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131 "2022-09-24T08:57:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/21 "2022-09-24T19:13:12Z")
That was Proust. Granted, it’s better in the original French: “Vivre, Rire, Aimer.” Raleigh wrote “Even broken crayons still color.” ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/22 "2022-09-24T19:19:28Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Some sources claim that the quotation comes from a writer named Elbert Hubbard. L. Bert Hubbard, founder of Sciencenetics? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/23 "2022-09-24T19:26:46Z")
> [@Octagon](#): > > gently allows you to grow. Obviously not Shakespeare, but I’m interested in this use of “grow” to describe an adult’s spiritual/emotional/psychic development. Is this usage dating from mid-to-late 20th century? ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/24 "2022-09-24T19:28:05Z")
Elbert Hubbard was a Hoosier cartoonist known for his homespun sentiments. If it’s not his, it’s a good fit anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/25 "2022-09-24T20:07:54Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > “It doesn’t take a genius to know the difference between chicken shit and chicken salad” > _Twelfth Night_, Act 2, Scene 3. “When the wind is southerly…” ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/26 "2022-09-24T20:21:12Z")
I hope this has straightened everything out for the OP, who, most mysteriously, has not returned. ~ Ben Franklin, “Hobgoblins of Little Minds” ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/27 "2022-09-24T20:42:43Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > L. Bert Hubbard, founder of Sciencenetics? Christian Sciencenetics, founded by Mary Bert Eddy. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/28 "2022-09-24T20:48:23Z")
> [@Hermione1](#): > > I mean…I’m just…EXACTLY HOW WOULD WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE KNOW WHAT A “LIGHT YEAR” EVEN WAS?! I blame James T. Kirk. Starfleet’s Temporal Investigations division considered him to be a menace, after all! ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/29 "2022-09-24T22:18:34Z")
> [@Peter\_Morris](#): > > [It appears to originate](https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/All_in_a_Family/SCsoJOLgeeQC?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22gently+invites+you+to+grow%22&dq=%22gently+invites+you+to+grow%22&printsec=frontcover) in a book called _All In A Family_ by Michael Gaydos, 1977. At least, it’s the earliest I can find, and he doesn’t indicate that it’s a quote from someone else. Are there two people named Michael Gaydos or just one? I did some searching on the name. There is one who is described as an evangelist and one who is described as a comic book artist: > **[Michael Gaydos Obituary (2005) - North Huntingdon, PA - Tribune Review](https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/triblive-tribune-review/name/michael-gaydos-obituary?pid=181927749)** > > View Michael J. Gaydos's obituary, send flowers and sign the guestbook. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/30 "2022-09-24T23:22:01Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Are there two people named Michael Gaydos or just one? I never heard of him before I found the quote. Your link shows the evangelist died in 2005. The comic artist appears to still be working. So they are probably two different people. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/31 "2022-09-24T23:35:29Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > There is one who is described as an evangelist and one who is described as a comic book artist: Can’t he be both, like the late Earl Warren? ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2022, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/32 "2022-09-24T23:58:01Z")
_“Don’t worry; be happy.”_ - Wm. Shakespeare - “The Merry Wives of Windsor” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/33 "2022-09-25T01:18:22Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Can’t he be both, like the late Earl Warren? That’s why I asked. Michael Gaydos strikes me as an uncommon enough name that it would be surprising if there were two of them. It’s certainly possible that someone could do both and hide the fact from their fans of each of those jobs that they also had the other job. I couldn’t find anything that indicated whether the comic book artist was still alive. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/34 "2022-09-25T01:31:26Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I couldn’t find anything that indicated whether the comic book artist was still alive. [Web Page](https://michaelgaydos.com/home) [Comic Vine page](https://comicvine.gamespot.com/michael-gaydos/4040-2553/) Which includes a link to his [Twitter account](https://twitter.com/gaydosmichael). ---
**Author:** ![PhillyGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@PhillyGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PhillyGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/35 "2022-09-25T01:37:01Z")
I wonder if anyone has tried to calculate what percent of quotations on the internet, outside of mainstream media and peer-reviewed articles, are accurate. I suspect it is low. When people have, on rare occasions, on a forum like this, put my words in quotation marks, it often as not was mistaken, and that could be easily searched. I’m finishing up a biography of Benjamin Disraeli, and the most common quotations attributed to him, seem unproven at best. For example, he is claimed, on whisper down the lane evidence, to have told Victoria that his religion was the blank page between the old and the new testament. He was a witty guy, but not that way. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 1:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/36 "2022-09-25T01:48:27Z")
[![](https://preview.redd.it/p0eyrt50k6i71.jpg?auto=webp&s=8273e4837bd17fcbb96ec93dc94add8fa29757d1) ](https://preview.redd.it/p0eyrt50k6i71.jpg?auto=webp&s=8273e4837bd17fcbb96ec93dc94add8fa29757d1) ---
**Author:** ![Octagon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/2acd7d/32.png) [@Octagon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Octagon)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/37 "2022-09-25T04:47:18Z")
Thanks Peter\_Morris. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/38 "2022-09-25T04:57:55Z")
What magic do you need to invoke to post images? I don’t even remember that being possible, and the easiest way I tried appeared to work but then said I couldn’t do that. So for your amusement, consider that my image has a picture of Abraham Lincoln, has the saying “We have nothing to fear but fear itself” and is attributed to Oscar Wilde. If you can find that image anywhere on the internet, they stole it from me. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/39 "2022-09-25T05:02:42Z")
> [@glowacks](#): > > What magic do you need to invoke to post images? I don’t even remember that being possible, and the easiest way I tried appeared to work but then said I couldn’t do that. Just paste the URL of the image onto a blank line. For example, if I were to paste the URL “[https://i.gifer.com/Akbi.gif](https://i.gifer.com/Akbi.gif)” onto a blank line, the result would be this gif of WWE Superstar™ Sheamus performing an amusing dance; [![](https://i.gifer.com/Akbi.gif) ](https://i.gifer.com/Akbi.gif) ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2022, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131/40 "2022-09-25T05:09:10Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Just paste the URL of the image onto a blank line. Ah, so the site isn’t willing to host any images. Well, my image is on my hard drive, so I guess it’s not getting shown, because I don’t want to bother with putting it on the internet somewhere else first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-this-really-a-shakespeare-quote-a-friend-is-one-that-knows-you-as-you-are-understands-where-you-have-been-accepts-what-you-have-become-and-still-gently-allows-you-to-grow/972131.md?page=3)