“The road to a friend’s house is never long”

“The road to a friend’s house is never long” is a saying that has been printed on many images. “To a friend’s house the road is never long” has been cited in print since at least 1857, when the saying was listed as a Danish proverb.
 
     
Google Books
A Polyglot of Foreign Proverbs
By Henry George Bohn
London: Henry G. Bohn
1857
Pg. 360 (Danish Proverbs):
Det er ikke lang Vei til Vennehuus. To a friend’s house the road is never long.
Pg. 549:
To a friend’s house the road is never long.
   
Google Books
Proverbs, Maxims, and Phrases of All Ages
Compiled by Robert Christy
New York, NY: G. P. Putnam’s Sons
1887
Pg. 413:
To a friend’s house the road is never long.
Dan.
   
9 December 1900, Cedar Rapids (IA) Daily Republican, pg. 13, col. 1:
SOME DANISH PROVERBS.
From “The World’s Best Proverbs and Short Quotations”
To a friend’s house the road is never long.
 
Google Books
A World Treasury of Proverbs from Twenty-five Languages
Collected by Henry Davidoff
New York, NY: Random House
1946
Pg. 148:
To a friend’s house the road is never long. (Dutch)
   
Google Books
Telegraph Delivery Spirit
Volume 16, Issue 2
1949
Pg. 60:
To you, wherever you are, we would like to remind you that the road to a friend’s house is never long. We like to consider all TDS florists as friends.
   
6 December 1953, Oakland (CA) Tribune, S-17, col. 6:
More and more we have been staying home regardless of that old saying, “the way to a friend’s house is never long.”
 
19 August 1956, Sunday World-Herald (Omaha, NE), pg. 15-E, col. 7 ad:
... “The Road to a Friend’s House Is Never Long,” ...
(Brain’s department store.—ed.)
 
Google News Archive
19 December 1962, The Leader Mail (Granby, Quebec), pg. 31, col. 1:
“The road to a friend’s house is never long”
An old Scots saying goes “The road to a friend’s house is never long”.
 
Google Books
The Admiral
By Warren Tute
London: Cassell
1963
Pg. 212:
At the top under a flickering gas jet was a picture of a cottage garden embroidered in silk with the motto ‘The way to a friend’s house is never long’.
 
Google Books
The Routledge Book of World Proverbs
By Jon R. Stone
New York, NY: Routledge
2006
Pg. 172:
The road to a friend’s house is never long. (Danish)
 
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The road to a friend’s house is never long. ~ Danish Proverb
8:35 PM - 26 Jun 2014