Scribin' ain't easy, but it's worth it

A bit more from Ostler's Empires of the Word:

The Egyptian scribe...represented from the earliest documented times the acme of ambition. This is amply confirmed by the kinds of texts that were copied in the scribal schools:

Behold there is no profession which is not governed; 
It is only the learned man who rules himself.

Set to work and become a scribe, for then thou shalt be a leader of men. 

The profession of scribe is a princely profession; his writing materials and his rolls of books bring pleasantness and riches.

In the Satire on Trades, the scribe boasts: 

I have never seen a sculptor sent on an embassy, nor a bronze-founder leading a mission.