Ptahhotep Quotes

Ptahhotep shares plain-spoken counsel on teaching, marriage, and avoiding slander.

19 quotes

Teach him what has been said in the past; then he will set a good example to the children of the magistrates, and judgement and all exactitude shall enter into him. Speak to him, for there is none born wise.

#1
Do not be arrogant because of your knowledge, but confer with the ignorant man as with the learned. For knoweledge has no limits, and none has yet achieved perfection in it. Good speech is more hidden than malachite, yet it is found in the possession of women slaves at the millstones.

#2
Truth is great and its effectiveness endures.

#3
Follow your desire as long as you live and do not perform more than is ordered; do not lessen the time of following desire, for the wasting of time is an abomination to the spirit... When riches are gained, follow desire, for riches will not profit if one is sluggish.

#4
Beware an act of avarice; it is bad and incurable disease.

#5
If you are well-to-do and can maintain your household, love your wife in your home according to good custom...Make her happy while you are alive, for she is land profitable to her lord.

#6
Do not repeat slander; you should not hear it, for it is the result of hot temper.

#7
One who is serious all day will never have a good time, while one who is frivolous all day will never establish a household.

#8
Be cheerful while you are alive.

#9
“If he hesitate to open his heart, it is said, 'Is it because he (the judge) doeth the wrong that no entreaties are made to him concerning it by those to whom it happeneth?”
“In these days, when all things and memories of the past are at length become not only subservient to, but submerged by, the matters and needs of the immediate present, those paths of knowledge that lead into regions seemingly remote from such needs are somewhat discredited; and the aims of those that follow them whither they lead are regarded as quite out of touch with the real interests of life.”
“Silence is more profitable unto thee than abundance of speech.”
“Be a craftsman in speech that thou mayest be strong, for the strength of one is the tongue, and speech is mightier than all fighting.”
“Be not proud because thou art learned; but discourse with the ignorant man, as with the sage. For no limit can be set to skill, neither is there any craftsman that possesseth full advantages. Fair speech is more rare than the emerald that is found by slave-maidens on the pebbles.”
“If thou be powerful, make thyself to be honoured for knowledge and for gentleness. Speak with authority, that is, not as if following injunctions, for he that is humble (when highly placed) falleth into errors. Exalt not thine heart, that it be not brought low.[”
“For the greedy there will be no tomb”
“And they that are guided go not astray, but they that lose their bearings cannot find a straight course.”
“There is no craftsman who has acquired full mastery”
“These 'Instructions' were held in high esteem as text-books and writing exercises in schools—a circumstance to which we owe the preservation of many of them.”