Money Wisdom #448

"Aristotle had already condemned lending money at interest, describing the birth of money form money (in Greek, the word for interest, tokoi, also meant offspring) as a monstrous pregnancy, contrary to nature. Saint Augustine used the same metaphor in accusing usury of 'spiritual fornication.' This expression is symptomatic: fornication is the carnal act undertaken without procreative intent, drive only by concupiscence. This copulation, already guilty in itself, is worst when put in the service of a diabolical project: the self-engenderment of money, producing bastards."

Pascal Bruckner The Wisdom of Money (2017) p. 14-15