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There is a website about fasting that claims that this quote has been found on an "Egyptian pyramid inscription" in "3800 BC". This makes it extremely dubious: at that time the Egyptians have not yet invented neither writing nor pyramids. But maybe that could just be a typo. Still I wonder.

Here is the link to the website: http://www.allaboutfasting.com/fasting-quotes.html

It is quite possible that this is completely made up but my concerns are that this has been quoted again by more influential sources such as the YouTube channel "What I've learned": https://youtu.be/PKfR6bAXr-c?t=10m31s.

Searching the sentence on google led me to the above mentioned site (the YouTube video is where I have seen the quote and the date bugged me, together with the content of the video but that's another topic). As for the other google results these consist of a facebook page and other webpages that I wouldn't consider as reliable sources.

I wouldn't think that ancient Egyptian would put aphorisms on their pyramid texts but rather more liturgical texts, although I am definitively not a expert in Egyptology.

TT Farreo
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  • This one seems a hair more popular: *One-quarter of what you eat keeps you alive. The other three-quarters keeps your doctor alive.* But I'm extremely skeptical that this can be traced back to ancient Egypt. – Daniel R Hicks Mar 01 '18 at 21:24
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    I think you've failed to provide a credible claim. – Daniel R Hicks Mar 02 '18 at 02:02
  • Does this comment mean to say that humans can live on 25% of what they actually eat, and the other 75% makes them unhealthy? – DenisS Mar 02 '18 at 16:27
  • @DenisStallings - It means that back in 3800 BC doctors were getting rich off their patients just as they do now. – Daniel R Hicks Mar 02 '18 at 20:04
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    It's doubtful that they had distinct doctors at that time, and more likely priests who dabbled in medicine. – Graham Chiu Mar 06 '18 at 06:02
  • If your question is whether the origin is egyptian or not you should change your title to that and it might be appropriate for this site. If you are asking about the origins of a common english idiom you might be better off on english language stackexchange? – Cubic Mar 09 '18 at 15:48
  • Somebody changed the title. I am not asking for the origin of the English idiom but whether it was of ancient Egyptian origin. I didn't know there was such an English idiom. – TT Farreo Mar 11 '18 at 14:48

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