43 Pieces of Advice From an Ancient Egyptian Vizier to His Son

The Maxims of Ptahhotep (circa 2350 BC)

Statue of Nikare as a scribe, circa. 2420–2389 BC, from Saqqara, Egypt. Metropolitan Museum of Art, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Around the year 2350 BC, a man named Ptahhotep was vizier to the pharaoh of ancient Egypt. The vizier was the highest ranking official in ancient Egyptian “government”, and usually the right-hand man of the pharaoh. Ptahhotep was therefore a successful man, entrusted by his king to bear a big…