“Listen therefore to your elder brother, and you should be obedient to your elder sister as if she were your mother.”

— Instructions of Shuruppak, The Instructions of Shuruppak

About Instructions of Shuruppak

Ancient Sumerian wisdom text from the third millennium BCE, among the oldest surviving works of advice literature.

“A loving heart maintains a family; a hateful heart destroys a family.”

“The instructions of an old man are precious.”

“Nothing at all is to be valued, but life should be sweet. You should not serve things; things should serve you.”

“From a Child I was fond of Reading, and all the little Money that came into my Hands was ever laid out in Books.”

“You know my friends, there comes a time when people get tired of being trampled by the iron feet of oppression.”

“If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would not be one cheerful face on the earth.”

“You can live without a father who accepts you, but you cannot live without a world that makes some sense to you.”

“Meditation on the chance which led to the meeting of my mother and father is even more salutary than meditation on death.”

“My father invested his money so securely in the banking business that he was never able to get any of it out again.”