We were friends and have grown distant from one another. But it is right that should be so; let us not dissemble and obscure it, as if it were something to be ashamed of. We are two ships, each of which has its destination and its course; our paths can cross and we can celebrate a feast togehter, as we did - and then the brave ships lay so peacefully in one harbour and under one sun that it might seem they had already reached their destination and both had one destination. But then the almighty power of our tasks again drove us apart, to different seas and different climes, and perhaps we shall never see one another again - or perhaps if we do we shall not recognize one another: different seas and sun have changed us! That we had to grow distant from one another is the law over us... There is probably a tremendous invisible curve and star orbit within which our so different paths and destinations may be included as tiny stretches of the way - let us raise ourselves to this thought! But our life is too short and our power of vision too weak for us to be more than friends in this sense of that exalted possibility. -And so let us believe in our friendship in the stars, even if we did have to be enemies on earth.

Friedrich Nietzsche - The Gay Science