How we cite our quotes: (Act.Scene.Line)
Quote #1
TIMON:
I am not of that feather to shake off
My friend when he must need me. I do know him
A gentleman that well deserves a help:
Which he shall have: I'll pay the debt, and free him. (1.1.104-107)
Timon is generous—make that crazy generous—with his friends. We see in the very first scene how much importance he places on friendship (whatever this means to him). He wants to help his friends, and at this point, he really believes they would do the same for him.
Quote #2
TIMON:
Ceremony was but devised at first
To set a gloss on faint deeds, hollow welcomes,
Recanting goodness, sorry ere 'tis shown;
But where there is true friendship, there needs none.
Pray, sit; more welcome are ye to my fortunes
Than my fortunes to me. (1.2.14-19)
Who needs money when you have real friends? Timon is so certain of his friendships with the men at his banquet that he says they don't need to go through the motions of friendship with one another. It's not going to be long before he finds out how completely and totally wrong he is about everything.
Quote #3
TIMON:
O, no doubt, my good friends, but the gods
themselves have provided that I shall have much help
from you: how had you been my friends else? why
have you that charitable title from thousands, did not
you chiefly belong to my heart? I have told more of you
to myself than you can with modesty speak in your own
behalf; and thus far I confirm you. O you gods, think
I, what need we have any friends, if we should ne'er
have need of 'em? They were the most needless
creatures living, should we ne'er have use for 'em, and
would most resemble sweet instruments hung up in
cases that keep their sounds to themselves. (1.2.86-97)
As Timon addresses his friends, it's pretty clear that he values them more than anything else (or at least he values the fact that they allow him to be the big man around town): he's sure the gods themselves have provided them. But what's more interesting to us is the way he defines friendship. Something tells us that by the end of the play, no one's going to "belong to his heart."