Quoting the sage Ptahotep

Author: * Mirjam Nebet - 29 Posts on this thread out of 1,728 Posts sitewide.
Date: Jul 6, 2006 - 07:02

This texts is preserved on the Papyrus Prisse in the Biblioth èque National in Paris. It´s complete, which is a bit unusual, and it dates from the early Middle Kingdom. There is an earlier text of it in London, British Museum, but unfortunately that one is rather fragmentary. However, the beginning of this text says: The teaching of the City Governor and Vizier Ptahotep under His Majesty, the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Izesi - may he live forever and ever!

King Izesi reigned in the 5th Dynasty, whoch means the Old Kingdom, This probably means that the text is much older than the copies sofar found. Ptahotep is buried at Saqqara. Here is his advice on leadership:

If you are a leader, controlling the destiny of the masses, seek out every good thing, until there is no fault in your governance./Truth is great and its effectiveness endures; it has not been confounded since the time of Osiris. Men punish him who transgresses the laws, and it is a transgression even in the eyes of the rapacious; it is baseness which takes away wealth, and wrongdoing has never brought its venture safe to port. He (the wrongdoer) says, "I acquire for myself," and does not say, "I acquire because of my occupation", but when the end comes, righteousness endures. That is what a man learns from his father.

Well, one would wish modern leaders to take this to heart...