I, who ne'er
Went for myself a begging, go a borrowing,
And that for others. Borrowing's much the same
As begging; just as lending upon usury
Is much the same as thieving.
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Nathan the Wise (1779), Act II, scene II http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/natws10.txt
Misattributed
“I, who ne'er
Went for myself a begging, go a borrowing,
And that for others. Borrowing's much the same
As begging; just as lending upon usury
Is much the same as thieving.”
Nathan the Wise http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/natws10.txt (1779), Act II, scene II
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 18
writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic 1729–1781Related quotes
“I try not to borrow, first you borrow then you beg.”
Epigram, sometimes attributed to John Bromfield
Other
“6089. To borrow upon Usury, bringeth on Beggary.”
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
Book II, Ch. 16
Attributed
Part III, Chapter XIII, The Reservoir Plan and Credit Control, p. 154
Storage and Stability (1937)
I've Been Waiting for You
Song lyrics, Neil Young (1968)
“Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed:”
As quoted in Mental Recreation; or, Select Maxims (1831), p. 234
Context: Where there is much pretension, much has been borrowed: nature never pretends.