Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love and to be loved is the greatest happiness of existence.

The saying links two related claims: first, that friendships act as a kind of moral and emotional “fortification,” strengthening a person against misfortune, loneliness, and the wear of ordinary life; second, that the summit of human well-being is reciprocal affection. The emphasis is not on solitary achievement or pleasure but on durable, mutual bonds—friendship broadly understood as a network of supportive relationships, and love as the deepest form of that reciprocity. In this view, happiness is less a private state than a shared condition sustained by trust, sympathy, and ongoing care. The aphoristic style also suggests a practical ethic: cultivate many friendships, because life’s hardships are easier borne within a community of affection.