quote · Legacy record
If thou be great, after being of none account, and hast gotten riches after squalor, being foremost in these in the city, and hast knowledge concerning useful matters, so that promotion is come unto thee; then swathe not thine heart in thine hoard, for thou art become the steward of the endowments of the God. Thou art not the last; another shall be thine equal, and to him shall come the like [fortune and station].
If thou be great, after being of none account, and hast gotten riches after squalor, being foremost in these in the city, and hast knowledge concerning useful matters, so that promotion is come unto thee; then swathe not thine heart in thine hoard, for thou art become the steward of the endowments of the God. Thou art not the last; another shall be thine equal, and to him shall come the like [fortune and station].
Approximate author period: c. 1800 BC · ancient
Meaning not yet available
An individual explanation has not yet been added. We do not substitute a generic description for an interpretation of these particular words.
Begin with source-checked readings and explanations ↗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
- Approximate author period: c. 1800 BC · ancient
Papyrus Prisse manuscript circa 1800 BCE (BnF); not quotation composition date or author lifetime
An author lifetime, approximate period or collection date is not necessarily the date when these words were first written or spoken. - Recorded source
- The Instruction of Ptah-Hotep and the Instruction of Ke’Gemni (1906) (1906 AD)
Instruction of Ptah-Hotep, Gunn edition section 30; complete printed unit; literary attribution, not independently authenticated
A collection's publication date can be later than the words it records.
- Culture
- Ancient Egyptian