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O man of Shurrupak, son of Ubara-Tutu; tear down your house and build a boat, abandon possessions and look for life, despise worldly goods and save your soul alive. Tear down your house, I say, and build a boat.

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More quotes by Gilgamesh

Who is there, my friend, can climb to the sky?
Only the gods dwell forever in sunlight.
As for man, his days are numbered,
whatever he may do, it is but wind.

Enkidu opened his mouth,
saying to Gilgamesh:
"where you've set your mind begin the journey,
let your heart have no fear, keep your eyes on me!"

Read out
the travails of Gilgamesh, all that he went through!

You will be accounted a god. [...] Lord of Kulaba, [...] hero of the pristine mountain.

The life that you seek you never will find:
when the gods created mankind,
death they dispensed to mankind,
life they kept for themselves.

All Gilgamesh quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Gilgamesh (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.