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.