“THE INSTRUCTION OF PTAHHOTEP
Part V

Know your helpers, then you prosper,
Don’t be mean toward your friends,
They are one’s watered field,
And greater then one’s riches.
For what belongs to one belongs to another.
The character of a son-of-man is profit to him;
Good nature is a memorial,

Punish firmly, chastise soundly;
Then repression of crime becomes an example;
Punishment except for crime
Turns the complainer into an enemy.

If you take to wife a Spnt
Who is joyful and known by her town,
If she is fickle and likes the moment.
Do not reject her, let her eat,”