The Kural or the Maxims of Tiruvalluvar/Chapter 99
CHAPTER 99
WORTH
981. Behold the men that know their duties and want to cultivate worth in themselves: everything that is good will be a duty in their eyes.
982. The comeliness of the worthy is the comeliness of their character: the comeliness of the body addeth nothing to their comeliness.
983. Love to all, sensibility to shame, complaisance, indulgence to the faults of others, and truthfulness, these five are the pillars that support the edifice of a noble character.
984. The virtue of the saint is non-killing : and the virtue of the worthy man is the abstaining from scandalous speech.
985. It is humility that is the strength of the strong: and that is also the armour of the man of worth against his foes.
986. What is the touchstone of worth? It is the acknowledgement of superiority when it is found even in men who are otherwise one's inferiors.
987. Where is the superiority of the worthy man if he doth not do good even unto those that work him injury ?
988. Poverty is no disgrace to a man if he possesseth the wealth that is called character.
989. Behold the men that would not swerve from the path of rectitude even if all else should change in a general convulsion: they will be called the very palladium of worth.
990. Verily even the earth itself will not be able to support the burden of human life if the worthy were to fall from their worth.
