Chapter 30: Truthfulness

Kural 291

What is truthfulness? It is speaking words
which are totally free from harmful effects.

Kural 292

Even falsehood is of the nature of truth
if it renders good results, free from fault.

Kural 293

Let one not speak as true what he knows to be false,
for his conscience will burn him when he has lied.

Kural 294

One who lives by truth in his own heart
truly lives in the hearts of all people.

Kural 295

Those who speak only truth from the heart
surpass even penitents and philanthropists.

Kural 296

No prestige surpasses the absence of falsehood;
all other virtues flow from it effortlessly.

Kural 297

Not lying, and merely not lying, is beneficial
for those who cannot or will not practice other virtues.

Kural 298

Water is sufficient to cleanse the body,
but truthfulness alone can purify the mind.

Kural 299

Not all lamps give light.
The lamp of not-lying is the learned man's light.

Kural 300

Among all great truths we have ever beheld,
not a single one rivals the goodness of telling the truth.