The Mayor of the City and Vizier, Ptahhotep, spoke before the Majesty of King Isesi, King of Upper and Lower Egypt:

'O King, my Lord! Old age has arrived; decrepitude has descended upon me. My limbs ache, infirmity is renewed every day; the eyes are dim, the ears grow dull; strength is perishing because of the weariness of the heart.

The mouth is silent, it cannot speak; the mind has become dark, it remembers not yesterday. Goodness has turned into pain; all taste is gone. What old age does to men is evil in every thing.

Let your servant be commanded to fashion a staff of old age—that my son may stand in my place, and that I may tell him the words of them that listen, the ideas of the ancestors who once listened to the gods. May the like be done for you, that strife may be banished from your people!'

And the Majesty of this King said: 'Teach him the words of the past, that he may become a wonder to the children of princes. Let listening enter his heart, and every excellence dwell in his soul!'

1. Do not be proud because of your learning; speak with the unlearned as with the learned. The boundaries of knowledge are never closed, and no artisan's skill reaches perfection. Eloquent speech is more elusive than the green malachite stone, yet it is found with the slave-girls grinding barley.

2. If you meet a disputant in his moment of fury, who is more powerful than you, bend your arms and bow your back. If you do not confront his harsh speech, he will be called an ignorant fool, while your calm restraint will overcome him.

3. If you meet an opponent who is your equal, show your superiority over him through silence. While he speaks evil, the onlookers will perceive your dignity, and your reputation will be high in the hearts of the great.

4. If you meet a poor man who disputes with you, who is not your equal, do not be aggressive toward him simply because he is weak. Leave him alone upon the ground; he will refute himself. Do not answer him to relieve your own heart; wretched is he who injures a lowly spirit.

5. If you are a leader charged to guide the multitude, seek out every beneficent deed, that your conduct may be blameless. Great is justice, enduring and stable; it has not been overturned since the time of Osiris.

11. Follow your heart as long as you live. Do not do more than what is appointed; do not shorten the time of following your heart, for wasting the spirit's season is an abomination to the Ka.

17. If you are a man who has the duty of listening, listen patiently to the words of the petitioner. Do not repel him until he has poured out all that he came to say. A man in sorrow desires that his petition be heard with tenderness even more than he desires that his request be fulfilled.

18. If you desire that your friendship remain steadfast in a house where you enter, beware of approaching the women. A thousand men have been ruined for the pleasure of an hour, which passes like a dream, after which death arrives as the conclusion.

19. If you desire that your character be sound, guard yourself against the vice of greed. It is an incurable disease; there is no medicine for it. It entangles fathers and mothers and brothers; it separates wife from husband. The peaceful man endures whose standard is righteousness, who walks in its path.

21. If you are prosperous and found a household, love your wife in her home with wholehearted devotion. Fill her belly, clothe her back; oil is the remedy for her limbs. Make her heart glad as long as you live, for she is a fertile field for her owner.

22. Satisfy your companions with that which comes to you, for it is through friendship that a man builds a citadel of security in the day of misfortune.

24. Do not repeat malicious gossip, nor listen to it. It is the utterance of an inflamed soul. Speak only of that which you have seen with your own eyes, not of rumors carried on the wind.

30. If you have become great after having been small, and rich after having been poor in the city, do not forget how it was with you in the beginning. Do not let your heart be puffed up with pride because of your storehouses, for you are only the custodian of the gifts of God.