“The palace is like a mighty river: its middle is goring bulls; what flows in is never enough to fill it, and what flows out can never be stopped.”

— Instructions of Shuruppak, Instructions of Shuruppak (early third millennium BCE)

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.”

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

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

“If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do, chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes' palaces.”

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

“Always take the short cut; and that is the rational one. Therefore say and do everything according to soundest reason.”