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The Author
Three
Four
Eleven
11
Faults to Avoid
Greed
If you want
your conduct to be good,
Deliver
yourself from all evil.
Fight greed in your
heart on all occasions.
Greed is the
serious illness of the incurable.
Curing it is
impossible.
Greed spreads
unhappiness among mothers and fathers,
And among the
brothers of the mother.
It divides husband
and wife.
Greed is a reunion
for all sorts of evil,
It is like a sack
that contains everything that is hateful.
Ptah-Hotep
The greedy man
fails.
What he meets
is checkmate.
There is no
yesterday for the lazy,
No friends for
those deaf to righteousness,
No feast days
for the rapacious.
Stories of the Oases
Acquiring
things with greed is an evil that has no end.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Desiring the
goods of another is a form of madness.
Merikare
Do not fill your heart with
desire for the goods of others
but rather concern yourself with what you have built up
yourself.
Ani
It is greed that leads to quarrels and fighting in a household
and brings unhappiness to families.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Do not be rapacious even when you have to act against
someone who is
himself rapacious.
Stories of the
Oases
The rewards of
greed are as ash blown on the wind.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Do not hold back a part of what should go to the temple,
Do not be greedy,
Do not turn a
servant away from God.
Kha-Keper-Re-Seneb
Vanity
The vain man is lost by his
own heart,
Like a tree that grows too tall is pruned.
Insinger
Papyrus
He who spits at Heaven,
His spit will fall back down on him.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Pettiness
The mean-spirited person
will never get anywhere.
The Loyalist Teaching
Malice
The goods of a
wise man are lost if he gives way to spite.
Insinger
Papyrus
Keep your
distance from those with hate in their hearts.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Do not associate with wicked
people because of their
reputation.
Insinger Papyrus
The death of an evil man is a cause for celebration
for
those he leaves behind.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Violence and Excess
The man of excess does not practice righteousness.
The man whose
heart gets carried away
Is not the man
who is looked for when action is needed.
Stories of the
Oases
A storm that
rages like a fire in straw:
That is what the angry man is like.
Keep away from
him, leave him alone.
God
knows how to deal with him.
Amenemope
Do not protest to those who provoke you,
Do not reply to
them.
He who does evil, The land
will reject him,
And the flood will carry him
away.
Amenemope
Physical violence calls for retaliation,
Everything it
accomplishes will be caught up in this.
Merikare
Do not steal from the unfortunate,
Do not be violent towards the weak.
Do not stretch out your hand to threaten the old,
And do
not speak impolitely to them.
Amenemope
The hard man causes his own destruction,
No descendant will honour him.
The Loyalist
Teaching
Let the quiet man become violent
Only if the altars of the Gods are desecrated,
Then God will act against those who rebel against the
temple.
Merikare
Theft
Do not steal, you will profit from this
Amenemope
Do not move the boundary markers at the edge of a field,
Do not change the position
of the measuring line.
Identify he who acts like
this on the earth,
Since he is an
oppressor of the weak
And an enemy
dedicated to your destruction.
Amenemope
Ignorance
As for the
ignorant man who does not listen,
He will
accomplish nothing...
He is like a
dead man walking through daily life.
Ptah-Hotep
Everyone can
find the path to God,
But the
ignorant cannot.
Ankh-Sheshonk
For the ignorant, the work of God is
nothing but a joke.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Stupidity
Advice given to the stupid weighs as
little as the wind.
Ankh-Sheshonk
The fool who
lights a fire gets too close and burns him self.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Keeping
company with the stupid brings misfortune.
Insinger Papyrus
It is better to
have a serpent hanging around the house than
a fool.
Ankh-Sheshonk
The wicked acts of an imbecile harm those closest
to him.
Ankh-Sheshonk
You exhaust a donkey by loading it with bricks.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Credulity
Credulity leads to unhappiness.
Merikare
Negligence
If you neglect a problem it will bring a double
load of
difficulties.
Stories of the
Oases
Lies
When a lie emerges,
It wanders and
cannot cross in the ferry,
It does not
travel well.
Those who become rich thanks to lies
Will leave no descendants or heirs on this earth.
Those who sail with a lie will find no berth,
And
their boat will not tie up in port.
Stories of the Oases
Ingratitude
I have been generous to the poor,
I have looked after the orphan,
I have acted in a way which has
brought riches t
o those who possessed nothing
as well as to those who were already
rich,
And it
is he who has shared my food who has raised an
army against me,
And it is those to whom I have offered my hand who have
brought terror.
Amenemhat I
Chatter
Do not pour out your feelings to
just anyone:
You will lose all respect this
way.
Amenemope
A gossip is a disturbance in the community.
Merikare
The man who knows how to respect will prosper,
The humble man is worthy of praise.
The tent is open to the silent.
The seat of the calm man is spacious.
Do not chatter, the knives are being sharpened for the
unrighteous
Kagemni
Slander
Do not speak against anyone, great or small:
it's an insult to the soul
(Ka).
Ptah-Hotep
Do not repeat a slanderous rumour,
Do not listen to it.
It is a way of expressing oneself used by the
intemperate.
Let a slanderous rumour be thrown on the dust-heap.
Do not speak about it.
Ptah-Hotep
Materialism
The heart of he who
listens to his stomach is weakened.
He will provoke
disdain rather than love.
He who has a great
heart has a gift from God,
He who obeys his
stomach obeys the enemy.
Ptah-Hotep
Pampering Oneself
Do not pamper
yourself when you are young.
Otherwise when
you are old you will be weak.
Ankh-Sheshonk
Gluttony
Gluttony is
contemptible, you should show it the door.
A glass of water is
enough to quench your thirst,
A mouthful of
vegetables will strengthen your heart.
Unfortunate is he
who still wants more when the meal is over.
Kagemni
If your friends
drink too much,
tell them: No
alcohol for me!
If not, you
will be found sprawled out on the ground as if you were a helpless child.
Ani
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