Full Idea
Friendship has something universal about it. It consists in loving a human being as we should like to be able to love each soul in particular of all those who go to make up the human race.
Gist of Idea
Friendship is partly universal - the love of a person is like the ideal of loving everyone
Source
Simone Weil (Friendship [1940], p.288)
Book Reference
Weil,Simone: 'An Anthology' [Penguin 1986], p.288
A Reaction
Hm. Would you like your lover to dream of loving the human race, rather than just loving you? Perhaps only a Christian could see friendship in this way?