Vol. 06 · Misquoted ·Play ·198 of 348
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be."
They never said that.
What people say
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be."
What was actually said
"Neither a borrower, nor a lender be: / For loan oft loses both itself and friend, / And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry." Polonius — Hamlet (1600) I.iii
Why it stuck
Polonius's advice continues for two more lines with the actual reasoning. Isolating the first line turns a financial warning into a generic life maxim.
As with "to thine own self be true," the speaker is Polonius — Shakespeare assigns windy advice to the character he ridicules.
Know another line by heart?
Play the duel and see how many you can spot. Or browse the whole shelf.