“The holy passion of Friendship is of so sweet and steady and loyal and enduring a nature that it will last through a whole lifetime, if not asked to lend money.”Mark Twain · Scrieri și caiete · 1897 · Scrieri și caiete, caietul din 1896–1897
A friendship can last a lifetime, but an unpaid loan turns it into a debt.
Twain's humor works by contrast: four solemn adjectives build an ideal, and the punchline shatters it with a banal, universally recognized detail. The truth behind the joke is that money turns a symmetric relationship into one of creditor and debtor, and that asymmetry erodes affection. A friend of twenty years can become awkward overnight after borrowing a sum he never repays.
Why it matters A practical warning: if you value a friendship, think twice before mixing money into it.