“Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing.”

—  Doris Lessing

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

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Borrowing is not much better than begging; just as lending with interest is not much better than stealing." by Doris Lessing?
Doris Lessing photo
Doris Lessing 94
British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer … 1919–2013

Related quotes

Gotthold Ephraim Lessing photo

“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 (1729–1781) writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic

Nathan the Wise http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/natws10.txt (1779), Act II, scene II

Philip Gibbs photo

“It's better to give than to lend, and it costs about the same.”

Philip Gibbs (1877–1962) English journalist and novelist

England Speaks http://books.google.com/books?id=bCMrAAAAIAAJ&q=%22It's+better+to+give+than+to+lend+and+it+costs+about+the+same%22&pg=PA328#v=onepage (1935)

“Lending a favorite book has its risks; the borrower may not like it. I still don’t know a better novel than Crime and Punishment—still, every fourth or fifth borrower returns it unfinished: it depresses him; besides that, he didn’t believe it. More borrowers than this return the first volume of Remembrance of Things Past unfinished: they were bored. There is no book you can lend people that all of them will like.”

Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) poet, critic, novelist, essayist

“An Unread Book”, p. 50
The Third Book of Criticism (1969)

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester photo

“It is a good world to live in,
To lend, or to spend, or to give in;
But to beg or to borrow, or to get a man's own,
It is the very worst world that ever was known.”

John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester (1647–1680) English poet, and peer of the realm

Epigram, sometimes attributed to John Bromfield
Other

Theodore Dalrymple photo

“It is better to be opposed by an enemy than to be adrift in meaninglessness, for the simulacrum of an enemy lends purpose to actions whose nihilism would otherwise be self-evident.”

Theodore Dalrymple (1949) English doctor and writer

The Barbarians at the Gates of Paris http://www.city-journal.org/html/12_4_the_barbarians.html (Autumn 2002).
City Journal (1998 - 2008)

Jo Walton photo

“Libraries really are wonderful. They're better than bookshops, even. I mean bookshops make a profit on selling you books, but libraries just sit there lending you books quietly out of the goodness of their hearts.”

Jo Walton book Among Others

Source: Among Others

John Milton photo

“For such kind of borrowing as this, if it be not bettered by the borrower, among good authors is accounted Plagiarè.”

John Milton book Eikonoklastes

Eikonoklastes (1649), 23

“I was never so much "interested in Islam", so much as I was interested in trying to find out about God; I wanted to discover my purpose in life and a way to better the world I share with others.”

Dawud Wharnsby (1972) Canadian musician

Beating the drums of hope and faith (2004)

John Dryden photo

“… not judging truth to be in nature better than falsehood, but setting a value upon both according to interest.”

John Dryden (1631–1700) English poet and playwright of the XVIIth century

"Plutarch's Lives," Vol 1, Barnes & Noble Inc., 2006, Lysander p. 646
Translation from Greek originalː "τὸ ἀληθὲς οὐ φύσει τοῦ ψεύδους κρεῖττον ἡγούμενος, ἀλλ' ἑκατέρου τῇ χρείᾳ τὴν τιμὴν ὁρίζων."

Related topics