Tirukural

CHAPTER 85

Ignorance

841

Dearth of wisdom is the direst destitution. Other poverties the world deems less impoverishing.§

842

If any merit is gained when a fool gives a gift, however gladly, it is due to the recipient’s past penance and nothing else.§

843

The suffering that ignorant men inflict upon themselves can hardly be contrived by their enemies.§

844

What is stupidity, you ask? It is the conceit that dares to declare, “I am wise.”§

845

He who pretends to knowledge he does not possess raises doubts about the things he really knows.§

846

Fools follow a perverse path, clothing their well-formed naked body, yet never thinking to conceal their deformed mind.§

847

Neglecting valuable advice, an ignorant man becomes the cause of his own misery.§

848

That soul who neither follows another’s orders nor fathoms what to do himself creates nothing but torment until he leaves this life.§

849

As an unseeing man sees only the ways of his own mind, whoever attempts to open the eyes of those who will not see is himself blind.§

850

He who denies as false what the world declares to be true is deemed to be an earthly demon.§