Aristotle's discussion of friendship provides an inclusiveanalysis that, along with common everyday understanding,tries to take into account approaches as different as thatof the sophists and Plato's meditation on this theme. Thepresent essay examines the complexity of the phenomenonof friendship –especially the difficult intersection offriendship as loving intimacy between excellent individuals (teleia philia) and friendship as a genuinely political bond.Above all, it attempts to cast light on the political relevanceof perfect friendship. Thus understood, friendship isdisclosed as the end or destination of politics and may evenpresage the self-overcoming of politics as mere legality. Thisopens the way for an understanding of political finality asno mere expediency (in fact, as nothing less than communalthriving) and for thinking the political on the basis of pathos and singularity.