De Virtutibus

Therefore Moses forbids a man to lend on usury to his brother, [*]( Deuteronomy xxiii. 19. ) meaning by the term brother not only him who is born of the same parents as one’s self, but every one who is a fellow citizen or a fellow countryman, since it is not just to exact offspring from money, as a farmer does from his cattle.

And he enjoins his subjects not to hang back on that account, and to be more slow to contribute to the necessities of others, but rather with open hands and willing minds very cheerfully to give to those who have need, considering that gratitude may in some degree be looked upon as interest repaid at a more favourable season for what was lent in an hour of necessity, being repaid by the voluntary inclination of the receiver of the kindness. And if a person be not willing wholly to give, still at all events let him lend, so as to give the temporary use of what is wanted freely and cheerfully, without expecting to receive anything beyond the principal.

For in this way the poor will not become poorer, by being compelled to restore more than they received; nor will they who lent be doing iniquity if they only receive back what they lent. And yet they will not receive nothing more, for with the principal, instead of the interest which they have not demanded to receive, they will gain the best and most honourable of all human things, as they will have displayed kindness and magnanimity, and will have earned a fair reputation and [*]( Deuteronomy xxiii. 19. )