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

— 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.”

“A thief is a lion, but after he has been caught, he will be a slave.”

“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”

“That which makes the man no worse than he was makes his life no worse: it has no power to harm, without or within.”

“The young have exalted notions, because they have not been humbled by life or learned its necessary limitations.”

“We live in a country where the people own the Government and not in a country where the Government owns the people.”

“You never know how much you really believe anything until its truth or falsehood becomes a matter of life and death to you.”

“There is nothing to life that has value, except the degree of power—assuming that life itself is the will to power.”