Friendship is like money, easier made than kept.

Butler compares friendship to money to stress that acquisition is often simpler than maintenance. New friendships can form quickly through proximity, shared interests, or circumstance, but keeping them requires ongoing “investment”: time, attention, trustworthiness, and the ability to weather misunderstandings and change. The analogy also hints at the fragility of both: just as money can be spent or lost, friendships can be depleted by neglect, selfishness, or shifting priorities. In Butler’s characteristically skeptical, worldly vein, the line cautions against assuming that initial warmth guarantees durability, and it elevates constancy—rather than mere sociability—as the real measure of friendship.