"Can it then be that what we call the 'self' is fluid and elastic? It evolves, strikes a different balance with every new breath."

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Yet friendship, I believe, is essential to intellectuals. It is probably the growth hormone the mind requires as it begins its activity of producing and exchanging ideas. You can date the evolving life of a mind, like the age of a tree, by the rings of friendship formed by the expanding central trunk. In the course of my history, not love or marriage so much as friendship has promoted growth.

— Mary McCarthy