quote · Words worth keeping
Correct chiefly; instruct conformably [therewith]. Vice must be drawn out, that virtue may remain. Nor is this a matter of misfortune, for one that is a gainsayer becometh a strife-maker.
Correct chiefly; instruct conformably [therewith]. Vice must be drawn out, that virtue may remain. Nor is this a matter of misfortune, for one that is a gainsayer becometh a strife-maker.
Attribution & collection notes
- Author or tradition
- Ptahhotep (traditional literary attribution)
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- c. 1800 BC · ancient
Papyrus Prisse manuscript circa 1800 BCE (BnF); not quotation composition date or author lifetime; not necessarily a composition date. - Culture
- Ancient Egyptian
The voice behind the words.
Traditional literary attribution of an Egyptian instruction preserved in the Middle Kingdom Papyrus Prisse. The Old Kingdom setting is part of the literary frame; actual authorship and lifetime are unspecified. The archive uses Battiscombe G. Gunn’s 1906 English translation.
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