Try to live your life without incurring debt from or accruing the debt of others, or else you risk spoiling your relationships with other people. Taken from Shakespeare's Hamlet, offered as advice by the character Polonius to his son, Laertes. My dad always taught me to earn my own way, to never ask for financial help or hang around those who seek that help from me. Neither a borrower nor a lender be, that was his motto.