4. Books and friends should be few but good. 

          Friends  are said to influence the character of a person.  Similarly books too can affect the personality of an individual to a great extent.  One is free to choose whatever books and friends he wants. There are good people and bad people.  So one should must care to associate with good people if his character is to be refined.  Likewise good books can instil goodness into a person while bad ones can rout his character.  In a way, book act as friends and friends are often as useful as books.  If a person tries to read a lot of books without selecting them he will not be able to grasp anything worthwhile from them as he is liable to get confused.  In the case of friends also, if he tries to entertain a large number of friends he will not be able to form true and firm friendship with any of them.  There need not be a large number of friends for a person to get the fruits of friendship.  Too many books also might not help him to learn anything from them.  What matters is the quality.  So good care must be taken to select book that have quality. Likewise good friends should be selected on the basis of character.  Eventhough they are few in number, they should be of good quality and character.

By

B. Neelima,

Class IX - A,