Old friends are best.

The saying is commonly attributed to the English jurist and scholar John Selden and is typically linked to the posthumous collection of his table talk—brief remarks recorded from conversation rather than formal treatises. In that setting, Selden’s observations are aphoristic and practical, reflecting the social world of learned men, patronage, and long-standing personal alliances in seventeenth-century England. The remark “Old friends are best” fits the tone of those conversational maxims: a compact preference for relationships tested over time, voiced as a general rule of conduct rather than as a literary flourish or a line from a speech.

The aphorism praises the accumulated value of longevity in friendship. “Old” implies not age alone but proof: shared history, demonstrated loyalty, and knowledge of one another’s character. The superlative “best” suggests that time functions as a kind of moral and emotional verification, making long-tried companions more reliable than new acquaintances whose virtues are untested. Read in Selden’s milieu, it also hints at the importance of stable networks—friendships that endure political shifts and personal reversals. The line’s enduring appeal lies in its simplicity: it frames friendship as something refined by duration, like experience or judgment.