Tirukural

CHAPTER 102

Possession of Modesty

1011

For fair-faced maidens, modesty means bashfulness, but the deeper modesty shies away from shameful karmas.§

1012

Food, clothing and such do not differ much among people; what distinguishes good men from others is modesty.§

1013

All life clings to a body; perfect goodness clings to all that is modest.§

1014

Is not modesty a jewel adorning perfect men? Without it, is not their strut an awful blemish to behold?§

1015

The world decrees that men who are as ashamed by others’ disgrace as by their own are modesty’s fondest home.§

1016

The great would rather hold themselves behind modesty’s barricade than breach it to acquire the vast world.§

1017

Those who prize unpretentiousness will forsake life to preserve it. But they never forsake modesty for the sake of life.§

1018

If a man does not feel ashamed of what makes others feel ashamed, virtue itself will be ashamed of him.§

1019

Failing to observe good conduct, one sets his family on fire. Living in shamelessness, he incinerates everything good.§

1020

The movements of men devoid of modesty mock life, like wooden puppets suspended on a string.§