Among my friends love is a payment. It is an old debt for a borrowing foolishly spent.

-Dunbar,William
  Early Poems1939^46,'Among My Friends Love Is a Great Sorrow'.

A national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing.

-Hamilton, Alexander
  Letter to Robert Morris, 30  Apr.

'Is there no more?' She cries.'All this to love, and rapture's due, Must we not paya debt to pleasure too?'

-Rochester,JohnWilmot, 2nd Earl of
c.1672  'The Imperfect Enjoyment', l.22^4 (published1680).

   Apromisemadeisa debt unpaid,andthetrail hasits own stern code.

-Service, Robert William
  Songs of a Sourdough,'The Cremation of Sam McGhee'.