David Graeber Quote
In English, thank you derives from think. It originally meant, I will remember what you did for me—which is usually not true either—but in other languages (the Portuguese obrigado is a good example) the standard term follows the form of the English much obliged—it actually does mean, I am in your debt. The French merci is even more graphic: it derives from mercy, as in begging for mercy; by saying it you are symbolically placing yourself in your benefactor’s power—since a debtor is, after all, a criminal.63 Saying you’re welcome or it’s nothing (French de rien, Spanish de nada)—the latter has at least the advantage of often being literally true—is a way of reassuring the one to whom one has passed the salt that you are not actually inscribing a debit in your imaginary moral account book. So is saying my pleasure—you are saying, No, actually, it’s a credit, not a debit—you did me a favor because in asking me to pass the salt, you gave me the opportunity to do something I found rewarding in itself!64
In English, thank you derives from think. It originally meant, I will remember what you did for me—which is usually not true either—but in other languages (the Portuguese obrigado is a good example) the standard term follows the form of the English much obliged—it actually does mean, I am in your debt. The French merci is even more graphic: it derives from mercy, as in begging for mercy; by saying it you are symbolically placing yourself in your benefactor’s power—since a debtor is, after all, a criminal.63 Saying you’re welcome or it’s nothing (French de rien, Spanish de nada)—the latter has at least the advantage of often being literally true—is a way of reassuring the one to whom one has passed the salt that you are not actually inscribing a debit in your imaginary moral account book. So is saying my pleasure—you are saying, No, actually, it’s a credit, not a debit—you did me a favor because in asking me to pass the salt, you gave me the opportunity to do something I found rewarding in itself!64
Related Quotes
To begin to know ourselves we must have sincere conversations with ourselves as if with a good friend. We must answer without reserve, listen without judgement, and accept without condition. That is s...