The friend is the man who knows all about you, and still likes you.

To be fully known and still liked is rarer than it sounds, because most affection depends on a certain amount of editing. What is described here is the case where the editing has stopped and the liking held anyway, which is why one friendship of that kind outweighs a wide circle of people who admire a version of you.

The route to it is unremarkable and slow: telling somebody a true thing that does not flatter you, then seeing what they do with it. Test it in small increments rather than one confession. And when someone hands you their unedited version, notice the risk they took and treat it accordingly.