Talk:gratia gratiam parit

RFV discussion: August 2021–July 2023
Latin: “kindness results in kindness”. Tagged by 2003:DE:3721:3F30:D88A:36D5:4026:6AC9 on 5 July, not listed. J3133 (talk) 11:07, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
 * What’s the difference between grace and kindness? I don’t see it. Both translate to German as or . Fay Freak (talk) 14:17, 17 August 2021 (UTC)
 * English grace has several different meanings, including, . is equally polysemic.  --Lambiam 21:16, 18 August 2021 (UTC)
 * Actually, because of this polysemy, the Latin proverb can even mean “kindness begets thankfulness” – but this is too trivially true to be intended. --Lambiam 21:22, 18 August 2021 (UTC)

Variations on "kindness begets kindness" are how it's glossed pretty much everywhere, or in Latin "gratia gratiam parit, hoc est, beneficium beneficio invitatur" ; "gratificatio provocat benefactorem ad plura et majora beneficia: gratia gratiam parit". It makes considerably more sense, IMO, than either "thanks begets thanks" (what?) or "grace gives birth to grace", which is more plausible but odd and opaque given the polysemy mentioned above—kindness is one of the glosses at beneficium, grace isn't. From what I can tell the Latin phrase was introduced by Erasmus, who adds, "beneficium beneficio respondeat". I've added the quotation from the second link and this is cited as far as I'm concerned, the other two senses should IMO be removed as spurious ("thanks") or superfluous ("grace"). —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 04:11, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

RFV resolved. —Al-Muqanna المقنع (talk) 12:37, 19 July 2023 (UTC)