The Instruction of Ptahhotep

(4.1) Instruction of the mayor and vizier Ptahhotep, under the Majesty of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Isesi, living forever and for eternity.

(4.2) The mayor and vizier Ptahhotep says: “Sovereign, my lord, old age has come; frailty has descended.

(4.3) Weakness has arrived; childishness returns. One lies down in misery every day. The eyes are dim, the ears unhearing;

(4.4) strength is failing from weariness of heart. The mouth is silent and cannot speak;

(5.1) the heart is absent and cannot remember yesterday. The bones ache from long years. Good has become evil; every taste has vanished.

(5.2) What old age does to people is evil in every way. The nose is stopped and cannot breathe, whether one stands or sits. Command this servant here

(5.3) to make a staff for old age. Then I shall tell him the words of those who listened, the counsels of the ancestors who once obeyed the gods. May the like be done for you:

(5.4) then misery will be driven from the people, and the Two Banks will serve you.” The Majesty of this god said: “Teach him, then,

(5.5) the sayings of former times, so that he may become a model for the children of the great. May attentive hearing enter him, together with every integrity of heart. No one

(5.6) is born wise.” Beginning of the instruction in good speech, spoken by the hereditary noble and count, the god’s father, beloved of the god, the king’s eldest son—

(5.7) his intimate companion, the mayor and vizier Ptahhotep—as instruction for the ignorant in knowledge and in the measure of excellent speech:

(5.8) a benefit to one who listens, a loss to one who transgresses it. Then he said to his son: “Do not be arrogant in your heart because of what you know.

(5.9) Take counsel with the ignorant as with the learned. The limits of skill cannot be reached, and no craftsman is fully master of his art.

(5.10) Excellent speech is more hidden than greenstone, yet it may be found among women at the millstones. If you encounter a disputant in his moment,

(5.11) a powerful man, one more accomplished than you, fold your arms and bend your back. Do not set your heart against him: he will not be made to agree with you.

(5.12) Make little of his evil speech by not opposing him in his heat. He will be called an ignoramus,

(5.13) and your self-command will match his force. If you encounter a disputant in his moment, your equal, one who stands on your own level, you will prove yourself more accomplished than he:

(5.14) be silent while he speaks evil. Those who hear will speak greatly of it, and your name will be good in the judgment of the officials.

(6.1) If you encounter a disputant in his moment, a poor man who is not your equal, do not be aggressive against him because he is weak.

(6.2) Leave him alone, and he will confound himself. Do not answer him merely to relieve your heart; do not vent your heart against your opponent. Miserable is one who injures a poor man.”

(6.3) If you are a leader who directs the affairs of the multitude, seek out every worthy deed, until your conduct stands free of wrong.

(6.4) Justice is great, enduring in its power; it has not been disturbed since the time of Osiris. The transgressor of its laws is punished, though this escapes the greedy man.

(6.5) Wrong may carry off riches, but evil never brings its cargo safely into harbor. In the end, justice endures, and a man says, “This is my father’s ground.”

(6.6) Do not spread fear among people: god punishes in kind. One man says, “I shall live by this,” yet bread fails his mouth; another says, “I shall be rich,” then says, “My own cunning has ensnared me.”

(6.7) One man says, “I shall seize for myself,” and ends by giving to one he does not know. What people devise is not what comes to pass.

(6.8) When you imagine that your eye can discern and your heart can command, consider the designs of god. A man says, “I shall live,” not knowing what will happen; he says, “I shall prosper,” while his fate lies hidden.

(6.9) He gathers his plans and says, “I shall seize for myself”; yet when he reaches out his hand, what he sought is withheld from him. What people devise does not prevail.

(6.10) God’s command is what comes to pass. Therefore live at peace with what you have: what is given comes of itself.

(6.11) If you are a man of standing and establish a household, love your wife at home as is fitting. Fill her belly; clothe her back. Ointment is balm for her body. Gladden her heart as long as you live: she is a fruitful field for her lord.

(7.1) Do not contend with her; do not let strife enter her heart. Keep her from what would master her, for her eye is her storm when she looks. Thus you will make her remain within your house.

(7.2) If you are a man of worth seated in your lord’s council, gather your mind toward excellence. Be silent: silence is better than a torrent of words. Speak only when you know you can resolve the matter. It is the master of the craft who should speak in council; speech is harder than any labor.

(7.3) The one who understands speech makes it serve. If you are a trusted man, sent by one great man to another, hold fast to the charge of the one who sent you; deliver his message exactly as he said it.

(7.4) Beware of contentious speech that would embroil one great man with another. Keep to the truth; do not exceed it. Yet an outburst should not be repeated. Do not malign anyone, great or small.

(7.5) It is an abomination to the ka. If you till the earth and growth rises in your field, because god has made it flourish in your hand, do not boast beside your neighbors. Great is the respect accorded the silent man.

(7.6) A man of character who possesses wealth is formidable even in the council. Do not plunder one who has no children; do not reproach him for having none. A father may know grief, and a mother who has borne may be less content than another.

(7.7) It is the solitary man whom god sustains, while the head of a clan may pray for someone to follow him. If you are of humble station, attach yourself to an excellent man whose fortune is good before god.

(7.8) Do not let your heart rise against him because you knew him in his former condition. Respect him for what has come to him. Wealth does not come of itself: it is the portion of the one the gods favor. His abundance he gathered, but god made his worth and guards him even while he sleeps.

(7.9) Follow your heart as long as you live, and do no more than what is commanded. Do not shorten the time of following the heart: to waste its proper moment is an offense against the ka. Do not consume the whole day beyond what your household requires.

(7.10) When wealth has come, follow your heart, for wealth brings no good to one who is joyless. If you are a worthy man and beget a son through the favor of god, one upright and fashioned after your own heart—

(7.11) if he follows your teaching and his conduct within your house is fitting, take every good care of him. He is your son, the seed of your own ka; do not estrange your heart from him. Yet a man’s offspring may bring strife.

(7.12) See that the scales do not tilt; do not force them aside. Do not let your heart seize what belongs to another. Speak every word with exactness, and restrain the thrust of your mouth.

(8.1) Wrongdoing is an impediment to its doer in the future; those who hear of it say, “Such is the end of one who strays.”

(8.2) Their abundance comes from the field. If cultivation is undertaken for you within the estate of the Great House, drive off hunger.

(8.3) When you go, let your conduct be sound each day; possession endures only when grasping is absent.

(8.4) The keen eye rests upon the allotment. A scribe records the estate; one who is summoned has his portion, while the greedy man is cast out.

(8.5) What comes from the estate is reckoned according to every plan. Hapy comes by the god’s command, and the household is sustained by what is seen before it.

(8.6) If you are seated among guests in the company of one greater than you, look only at what lies before you; do not pierce him with many glances.

(8.7) Staring is an offense to the ka. Do not speak until he summons you: one does not know what may be unwelcome to his heart.

(8.8) Speak when he addresses you, and what you say will be pleasing. Let the food before you satisfy you.

(8.9) The great man at table conducts himself as his ka commands; his hand reaches out to the one he favors.

(8.10) In the household, his desire is his heart’s affair. He bestows what pleases him; the great man gives to the one who has attained favor.

(8.11) It is the god who advances a man’s station, not the man who forces his own way. Do not let your heart become greedy in your conduct.

(8.12) A fool complains. If you go on a commission for your lord, repeat to him exactly what was said; do not make the matter grievous through distortion.

(8.13) Do not answer with contentious words, nor take your stand as an adversary. Hold fast to the charge entrusted to you; do not add to what was given.

(8.14) Whether he wakes or sleeps, his anger remains upon him. Say only, “I have carried out your commission,” and return without wandering.

(9.1) Do not let a matter become an obstacle to you. Keep your eye on the charge: the man who rejoices in it is praised for it each day.

(9.2) One who goes forth bearing another’s words must return bearing them intact. Speech is weighed in the balance, and falsehood is an abomination.

(9.3) Do not let your mouth rush ahead and create strife. If you act as an envoy, return and report faithfully.

(9.4) Speak the petitioner’s words without diminishing them. The king values one who completes his task and places its benefit in his service.

(9.5) Tell him what was said to him, without bending it through favor. The heart’s flood is greater when a man sees that the message has come to him exactly.

(9.6) A petitioner desires that his words be heard even more than that the purpose of his coming be accomplished.

(9.7) Not everything for which he petitions can come to pass; yet a good hearing is better for the heart than doing all he desires.

(9.8) If you wish friendship to endure in a house you enter—as master, as brother,

(9.9) or as friend—in any place you enter, keep yourself from approaching the women.

(9.10) No place where that is done can prosper. The face is blind to it; a thousand men are turned aside from what would benefit them.

(9.11) A brief moment, like a dream—and death is reached through knowing them.

(9.12) It is a wretched course, fit to be shot down; when one goes to practice it, the heart rejects it.

(9.13) As for the man who continually fails through lust for them, no plan whatever will succeed in his hand.

(10.1) If you are prosperous, establish your household; love your wife within it as is fitting. Fill her belly;

(10.2) clothe her back. Ointment is the remedy for her body.

(10.3) Gladden her heart as long as you live, for she is a fruitful field for her lord.

(10.4) Do not contend with her at law; do not give power to her anger. Her eye is the storm: restrain its gaze,

(10.5) and it will make her remain in your house. Give to your intimates from what has come to you; satisfy them from what fills your heart.

(10.6) What you love comes through the god’s favor. Of the man who does not satisfy his intimates, people say:

(10.7) “He is a ka that feeds itself.” What is to come is unknown, though a man imagines tomorrow.

(10.8) No one knows what may befall. It is through upright character that contentment endures. Set your house in order; establish it firmly.

(10.9) Your intimates are your field in the hour of need. When deeds worthy of praise are done, it is they who say, “Welcome!”

(10.10) Guard your heart against repeating a report you have not verified. Such speech is harmful to its master; listen with discernment.

(10.11) Do not spread it through the town or answer it in kind. Let a man recount what he has seen, not what he has merely heard.

(10.12) As for what occurs in your own house, let your two eyes witness it: the deed itself is the measure, not the clamor raised around it.

(11.1) Gladden your wife’s heart as long as you live; the god has ordained that she be made content.

(11.2) A woman whose heart is satisfied will not raise contention; restrain her from what brings disorder throughout her days.

(11.3) Her vital spirit is nourished by contentment. Do not oppose her in judgment, nor let strife enter her heart.

(11.4) Thus she will remain within your house; but if she departs, the woman’s heart is left to wander.

(11.5) Do not be arrogant because of what you know. Take counsel with the ignorant as with the learned, for the limits of craftsmanship cannot be reached.

(11.6) No craftsman is fully master of his art. Excellent speech is more hidden than greenstone,

(11.7) yet it may be found among women working at the grindstones.

(11.8) If you encounter a disputant in action, your equal, one who stands on your level, let your worth surpass his through silence while he speaks maliciously.

(11.9) The hearers will speak greatly of it, and your name will be esteemed in the judgment of the officials.

(11.10) If he is a weak man, not your equal, do not let your heart assail him because of his words.

(11.11) Leave him to speak in his confusion; the magistrates will rebuke him, and his words will answer themselves.

(11.12) Do not vent your heart against your opponent, nor repay speech with speech merely to ease yourself.

(11.13) Wretched is one who injures a poor man. What you desire will be done, and the judgment of the great will overcome him.

(12.1) If you are one who leads, commanding the affairs of the multitude, seek out every excellent deed,

(12.2) so that your conduct may be without fault. Justice is great, and its efficacy endures;

(12.3) it has not been overturned. The transgressor of its laws is cast down, though this escapes the greedy man’s notice.

(12.4) It has endured from the god’s own day; none has seen it confounded. Its goodness remains for the one who acts by it.

(12.5) It establishes a house and brings the deed safely to land; wrongdoing has never brought its venture into harbor.

(12.6) The greedy man says in his heart, “I shall seize possession,” but the moment of reckoning comes, and the heart cannot ignore it.

(12.7) Baseness may gather riches, and falsehood may increase its hoard; yet rebellion against justice comes to ruin.

(12.8) Together with the god, what he desires is done for him. Speak when he addresses you; then your words will satisfy him.

(12.9) The heart of the great man seated over his food is guided by his inclination; he bestows what he loves, teaching people to recognize what belongs to him.

(12.10) His purpose proceeds according to his will. When you enter before a man, let him show favor in his own sight; he will not say, “Stretch out your hand to me.”

(12.11) It rests with his will. What is loved leads to contentment. When you come to cover the great man’s table, do not press yourself upon him.

(12.12) It is the sustenance of your household and the support of those who love you. The king’s sustenance comes from what he loves; when he sees a worthy man, he is gracious toward him.

(12.13) Be silent: what you love is what the great man loves. What is given into your hand is his favor; his will makes the meal pleasant.

(13.1) If you see the son of a councilman at the council’s rear, this is an errand that tests the heart and the body.

(13.2) When a great man speaks in anger, bend low. Do not put words into his mouth; keep watch upon yourself.

(13.3) He states his counsel before the officials; speech lies in his hand. Let the one charged with your case make the answer.

(13.4) The office is firmly established. If his place is assigned to you according to rank, preserve the order laid down for you.

(13.5) By the rightness of his conduct he passes freely through the gates; the king commands that his station be secured for you.

(13.6) Hold to the rank first given you on the first day. Do not force your way after you have been held back; observe what stands before you.

(13.7) When you have entered and settled in a household within the town, seeking what belongs to you among companions, let what happens to you be restrained.

(13.8) Let your heart be wary of reaching after beauty. Let what comes to you arise through generosity; the god advances whom he favors.

(13.9) Lower your face and master yourself. What takes shape for another must not become your desire; then no blame will rest upon your head.

(13.10) Do not contend within another’s house, nor in your own. Remain intent upon what is right, lest your desire entangle you in—

(13.11) the place where such a thing is done. It is a deadly snare: a thousand men are turned away from what would sustain them until tomorrow.

(13.12) Their judgment is swept aside; they stumble blindly. No strength or mastery remains to a man once his desire has seized him.

(14.1) A woman is a hidden snare. Do not embrace what belongs to another; do not let your heart go after her.

(14.2) A brief moment, like a dream—and death comes through knowing her. It is a brief moment of the heart’s fevered churning.

(14.3) If he knows it, he will contend with the one who disclosed it; hard is the lot of a messenger who brings such things into a household.

(14.4) Let your steps go on; govern your speech. Woman and child alike may become hostile to one who knows.

(14.5) A fool plunges into the water headfirst; what he sees confounds him. There is no cooling for what is in his body, and his own mouth consumes him.

(14.6) When you see the fool, his flood surges in his belly; his heart strips him bare, and his own hand brings judgment upon him.

(14.7) Speak no word of contention to the violent man. Turn away from him and let him go; when his eye perceives your restraint, his grasp will slacken.

(14.8) For one brief moment your excellence may remain secure; but his violence is a dream, and death is reached through the turmoil of his heart.

(14.9) At the moment of speaking, act uprightly. If a matter is placed in his hand, let him see it plainly; do not let anger seize your face.

(14.10) Do not contend with one greater than you. He is occupied with weighty business; let what is to be said to him be spoken in answer.

(14.11) Answer at the proper moment; do not forget yourself on the road before him or amid the king’s festivities.

(14.12) His speech will remain in its place; do not trespass in the king’s affairs. The sun rises over you, and tomorrow is not yours.

(14.13) If speech is made in the council chamber, it is weighed and carried away; it is not something to be scattered abroad.

(15.1) He whose face is restrained is a discerning man. A skilled speaker speaks from the measure of his heart; thus a man comes into dignity.

(15.2) In the sight of the king, let your standing not go to your head. A man sent on a mission must hold fast to the charge entrusted to him and carry out his commission exactly.

(15.3) Do not add a thing of your own to the message. Beware of contentious speech: it embroils one great man with another.

(15.4) Report his utterance as he spoke it. “I came to you; I came bearing the charge entrusted to me.” Then the son of a man will say of him, “What he said was good.”

(15.5) Do not spread words against anyone, great or small; it is the ka’s abomination. Set your face toward exactness, and restrain violent speech.

(15.6) If an occasion arises while you are on a mission, let trustworthiness govern your conduct. If you see a woman abroad, do not let your eyes follow her.

(15.7) Her heart is set on the things of the town; her ways are known to those among whom she dwells. Many are the men she has drawn aside—do not let her come near you.

(15.8) Her heart is a snare, her body a trap, a deep water whose course is unknown. If she says to you, “I am yours,” do not surrender your judgment to her.

(15.9) To go to her is death. She is a net spread out, a snare upon the road. A brief moment of pleasure—and every good thing is cast away.

(15.10) No word shall perish from this land forever. It shall be made a standard of goodness, and officials shall speak according to it. It is a son’s instruction, to be spoken to—

(15.11) those who come after. When one hears it, he becomes a master of listening. Good is speech addressed to posterity: posterity will hear it. If a good example comes from the hand of—

(15.12) the leader, it remains excellent for him, without limit of days; all his wisdom endures forever. It is the knowledgeable man who listens; what he hears establishes him, and good speech is within him.

(15.13) Throughout the land, the wise man is known by his knowledge; the official, by the excellence of his conduct. His heart governs his tongue, and his lips are exact—

(16.1) when he speaks; his eyes are exact when they see, and his ears when they hear what is useful—

(16.2) to his son. Practice truth, and be free of falsehood.

(16.3) Listening is profitable to a son; what is heard enters the listener. A listener becomes one who listens through listening.

(16.4) Good is listening, and good is speech. The listener is master of what is useful.

(16.5) Listening is good for the listener; listening is better than anything that exists. Love comes into being—how good, how good!

(16.6) A son who receives what his father says will attain old age through it, greatly honored.

(16.7) The god loves the listener and hates the one who will not listen. It is a man’s heart that makes—

(16.8) its owner a listener or one who will not listen. A man’s life, prosperity, and health are his heart. It is the listener—

(16.9) who hears what is said; one who loves listening does what is said. How good when a son listens to—

(16.10) his father! How joyful is the man of whom it is said, “The son—how pleasing is his place as one who listens!”

(16.11) A listener of whom this is said is firmly established and honored before—

(16.12) his father. His remembrance is in the mouths of the living, of those who are upon the earth—

(16.13) and those who shall be. If a son receives what his father says, he will not go astray in any—

(16.14) plan of his. You will be praised through your son, the listener.

(17.1) His excellence will be in the hearts of the officials; he will govern his mouth according to what has been said to him.

(17.2) Watchful as he listens, the son will excel, and his goings will be distinguished.

(17.3) There is no good in entering there: the heart finds no sweetness in it, and a man cannot know what will become of his condition.

(17.4) A fool persists in saying what he says; but if a wise man persists, it is through seeing the truth of the matter.

(17.5) The eye sees nothing: a thousand men are turned away from what would profit them, through ignorance of what they see.

(17.6) A brief moment, like a dream—and death is reached through knowing them; every forbidden act ends in abasement.

(17.7) It remains with him every day of his life; it is a vile thing, of which one says:

(17.8) “Strike down the rival!” Yet when he goes to do it, his heart recoils. It is not a thing known among the nobles; it hangs over him all the days of his life.

(17.9) As for him who founders through lust for women, none of his designs will succeed; it remains upon him every day.

(17,10) (17,10) A son who listens is a follower of Horus. Good comes to him after he has listened; he grows old,

(17.11) he reaches burial and the state of one revered. He tells the same to his children, renewing the instruction of his father.

(17.12) Every man instructs according to his conduct. He speaks before his children, that they in turn may speak.

(17.13) They are human beings; then they will speak to their children. Set them an example, and do not give offense.

(18.1) Make justice firm, so that your children may live and the nobles may speak of your uprightness.

(18.2) Your children will live because of you. As for the first man who comes bearing

(18.3) wrongdoing, people will say to those who hear, “That is exactly like him,” and they will say to those who see,

(18.4) “That is indeed like him.” So it will be said to those who hear; so it will be said

(18.5) to those who see. All will behold it, and the multitude will be content.

(18.6) Without them, wealth cannot be complete. Do not remove a word, nor add one in its place.

(18.7) Do not alter the order of the words. Beware of loosening the bonds within you; keep each thing in its proper place.

(18.8) Do not put one thing in the place of another. Beware of opening what is knotted within you, lest a knowledgeable man say:

(18.9) “Listen, if you wish to endure in the mouths of those who hear. Speak only after you have mastered the craft.”

(18.10) You are one who loves excellence among those who come after; your words will enter into you,

(18.11) on the discerning lips of those who speak; your speech will be more discerning than theirs.

(18.12) Every counsel of yours will stand in its place, while your heart ranges in company with you.

(18.13) Then your counsel will endure among the officials, and you will be chosen

(18.14) as a keeper of secrets before your lord. If he says, “That son of his,”

(19.1) concerning what those who know him have said, “Indeed, the one born to him is excellent,” your lord will trust your heart.

(19.2) At the time appointed for you to speak, you shall say this thing without excess; then the officials will say:

(19.3) “What comes from his mouth is good.” And when your lord says of you, “How excellent is the teaching of his father—

(19.4) his father, from whose very body he came! He spoke to him while he was still in the womb; what he has done for him is greater

(19.5) than what was said to him by you.” A good son is a god’s gift: he surpasses what his master tells him; he does what is right,

(19.6) his heart acting in accordance with his nature. Come, then, and reach me with your body sound, while the king is content with all that has come to pass.

(19.7) May you spend years in life without diminution. What I have done upon earth is no small thing: I attained one hundred and ten years of life, granted me by the king,

(19.8) with honors from the king surpassing those of the forebears, through doing what is right for the king, until reaching the place of reverence.

(19.9) It has come from its beginning to its end, as found in writing.