Thursday, September 6, 2018

Ptahhotep Maxim 18: Greed (1)

There are a couple of maxims about greed. This one says greed comes between families.

If you want your conduct to be good,
take yourself away from everything evil.
Be mindful about an instance of greed:
it is a painful disease of the shunned serpent.
No entrée can develop from it.
For it entangles fathers and mothers
and maternal siblings
and it alienates wife and husband.
It is robbery, everything bad:
it is a sack of everything despised.
A man lasts who is truly straight
and has walked according to his steps.
He makes a will thereby,
but greed has no tomb.

Greed:


Give + exist + repel


2 comments:

deborah said...

It is a sack of everything despised.

MamaM said...

A man lasts who is truly straight
and has walked according to his steps.


That takes me back to the words I "heard" nine years ago my 55th birthday when I was going through a dark season. They're the words I've held onto since and would want carved on a memorial stone if I were to have one.

"A faithful journey matters."