However hard and however disappointing
this advice seems to you, I know it suggests a course which will do more
for your character than all the money I could lend you.
Aside from the fact that you would begin life with a debt, is the
possibility of your contracting the debt habit.
One man in a thousand who borrows money to help himself along in early
life is benefited by it.
The other 999 are harmed.
To do anything on another's money is to lean on the shoulder of another
instead of walking upright. It is not good calisthenic exercise.
A few years ago I would have acceded to your request.
But each year I live I realize more and more that lending money is the
last method to be used in helping people to better themselves. In almost
every case where I have lent money, I have lived to regret it. Not
because I lost my money (which has usually been the fact), but because
I lost respect for my friends.
I remember the case of a young newspaper man and author, who came to me
for the loan of five dollars. I had never seen him before, but I knew
his brother, a brilliant playwright, in a social way.
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