Friendship is only a reciprocal conciliation of interests, and an exchange of good offices; it is a species of commerce out of which self-love always expects to gain something.

There is more calculation inside affection than we like to admit. Friendships do run on exchange, of help, attention, company and standing, and the ones that stop are usually the ones where the exchange became one-sided for long enough. Friendship is not only commerce, since people plainly do love one another. But the ledger is there underneath, and it explains which friendships quietly end.

Look at the friendships you value and ask what you have put in lately, honestly. Where the answer is nothing for a long time, do one concrete thing this week rather than trusting the history to hold it together.