Thiruvalluvar Quotes

“A life without discipline is shaky, insecure.
Guard your conduct and your well-being ensure.”

“And there is this thing called attachment, to things small and big.
Give that up if you want to be free from life’s constraining rig.”

“As sure as a life of honour leads to fame.
One degraded must end in shame.”

“As the restive bird, singing, abandons its nest.
So the soul flees the body, tired of being its guest.”

“To help without thinking ‘What’s in it for me?’
Is to be, for the helped one, vaster than the sea.”

“Banish the dark, view the light by seeing false as false.
And from all delusion freed, hark to the mystic vision’s calls.”

“Better far to stay unheard.
Than speak a single worthless word.”

“Born of and into error, by taking false as real.
Our present and our future we seal.”

“Break loose from desire’ it is wisely said, ‘and purity regain’.
By doing that you will a sense of the true attain.”

“Death’s but a nap’ says old wisdom.
But birth? A break in the soul’s freedom.”

“Don’t go by looks: the arrow, smooth, clean, pierces.
The harp, bent, makes music; don’t go by appearances.”

“Don’t hide behind the butcher’s blade saying, ‘He kills, I only eat'.

You’re the one that whets the knife that makes the thing called meat.”

“Evil acts won’t cure your poverty.
In fact, they’ll guarantee misery.”

“Forgiving the wrongdoer, in life’s book, has grace.
But forgetting the wrong itself has an even higher place.”

“Fortune fills the good man’s cellar with grain.
Like the village pond swells up with rain.”

“Good deeds done each day grow into a mighty rock.
Which all winds of harm will resolutely block.”

“Gripped by envy no man can move ahead.
He’ll collapse under that load of lead.”

“He who works with respect for the work.
Not driven by desire, will do well—be he king, be he clerk.”

“Here today, gone tomorrow
Fun today, tomorrow sorrow
‘Wondrous’ indeed is this odd world
(For want of a better or odder word)”

“Honest wealth bequeathed endures.
And heirs from grief inures.”

“How can one not see the ugliness of eating meat?
How can one made of flesh another’s flesh eat?”

“If food is what keeps us alive
’t Is rain that gives food its life.”

“If you don’t see what’s behind that which you see.
You’re as blind as blind can be.”

“If you eye what others have with envy’s burning eyes.
Misery and penury will strike those you prize.”

“If you’re jealous, you’re scripting your own ill-fate.
You stand as your own enemy, stone in hand, at your own gate.”

“If you’ve been helped, don’t forget it, not for a single day.
But if you’ve been wronged, you must forget it—and right away!”

“Joins sky to earth, it does, life on our planet to sustain.
And so ‘heaven’s true nectar’ is how we call the rain.”

“Knowing all wealth goes fast.
Use it to make something that’ll last.”

“Men of the world who forgive insults and worse.
Are greater than hermits who, in hungry caves, scowl and curse.”

“My life goes waste,’ you cry in pain and yet you cry in vain.
Remember, when need knocked on your door you only showed disdain.”