Depending on personal experience, personality type and emotional concern, some people hold the opinion that the most essential characteristics of a good friend are sense of humor and reliability. However, as far as I am concerned, I strongly believe that the most significant one is intelligence, owing to the fact that intelligent friend can give you an advice, and talking to him/her you have a chance to expand your store of knowledge.
It is very important for everyone to have a friend with whom they can share their problems, and who can give them some sensible pieces of advice. In this case, people ask for help from intelligent friends, who have a big experience in this field or another finding out a great number of appropriate ways to solve their problems. For instance, having hard decisions in my life, I ask my best friend James for suggestions, and he always comes up with a smart and useful advice. That is why it is so important to have an intelligent friend.
Another significant reason why I prefer having an intelligent best friend, is that talking to him/her I can easily enlarge my store of knowledge. Moreover, discussing something or arguing about this topic or another, you learn a lot of new things from this knowledgeable friend. For example, when I have a hot topic to discuss, I prefer calling my best friend and debate about it with him. It is not only interesting to talk to him, but also he has a big store of knowledge. Attending lots of exhibitions, I have learned about the art, history of other countries, design and literature.
In a nutshell, taking into account the above reasons, we may safely draw the conclusion that despite the fact that there are a great number of characteristics of a good friend, I suppose that the most important one is intelligence. With the help of intelligent friend you always have lots of appropriate solutions of your problem, and discussing different things you have a chance to enlarge your store of knowledge