Tirukural

CHAPTER 84

Folly

831

What is folly? It is holding on to that which is harmful and throwing away that which is helpful.§

832

The folly of all follies is to find pleasure in doing what one is forbidden to do.§

833

To be shameless, uninquisitive, loveless and uncaring are four failings common among all fools.§

834

No fool is more foolish than one who eagerly expounds his learning to others while failing to follow it himself.§

835

It only takes a single birth for a fool to earn by his efforts a morass of misery in the succeeding seven births.§

836

Not knowing how to act, when a fool undertakes an enterprise, he doesn’t just fail, he shackles himself in chains.§

837

Should a fool fall upon a great fortune, strangers will feast while his family starves.§

838

If a fool happens to acquire something of value, he will behave like a drunken lunatic.§

839

Friendship among fools is particularly sweet, for there is not the slightest pain when they part.§

840

A fool’s stepping into a saintly council is like entering a clean bed with filthy feet.§