A dependable friend. This expression is thought to come from a Latin proverb stated by Ennius in Hecuba (ca. 180 b.c.), quoted by Cicero and Erasmus and literally translated as “The certain friend is discerned in uncertain circumstances.” It had been quoted many times—by William Caxton, John Heywood, and others—by the time Shakespeare used it in The Passionate Pilgrim (1599): “He that is thy friend indeed, he will help thee in thy need.”