Marcus Aurelius: Nothing is more wretched than a wolf…

False friendship is easy to spot when it belongs to someone else: praise offered for advantage, support that vanishes under pressure, confidences traded for attention. The harder examination is our own conduct. Have we acted warm toward someone while privately hoping they fail? Have we kept a relationship alive only for access, status, or convenience? Have we withheld help because another person's success made us feel smaller? Stoicism directs the first scrutiny inward. Today, consider one relationship where your motives are mixed. You need not confess every passing feeling, but you can choose one more honest act. Give credit without qualification, stop repeating a private detail, or communicate a boundary directly rather than pretending. Real friendship asks for consistency between what we show and what we intend. That consistency is within our power to practice.