For who so rich can be that sometimes may not owe, or who can be so poor that sometimes may not lend?
 François Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (1534). copy citation

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Author François Rabelais
Source Gargantua and Pantagruel
Topic lending
Date 1534
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty and Peter Antony Motteux
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1200/1200-h/1200-h.htm

Context

“And I am fully confirmed in the opinion, that the Persians erred not when they said that the second vice was to lie, the first being that of owing money. For, in very truth, debts and lying are ordinarily joined together. I will nevertheless not from hence infer that none must owe anything or lend anything. For who so rich can be that sometimes may not owe, or who can be so poor that sometimes may not lend? Let the occasion, notwithstanding, in that case, as Plato very wisely sayeth and ordaineth in his laws, be such that none be permitted to draw any water out of his neighbour’s well until first they by continual digging and delving into their own proper ground shall have hit upon a kind of potter’s earth, which is called ceramite, and there had found no source or drop of water;” source