The Thirukkural is one of the oldest of extant Tamil books.Written by Thiruvalluvar around the first century BC, this moral code is not confined to any creed or denomination and is universal in every sense of the word.

Thiruvalluvar has offered words of wisdom on many inverse human subjects but mostly centering on the principles of conduct that should guide all persons irrespective of race or religion.

Below are a few random selections.The translation from tamil  is by the renowned scholar and statesman, the late C. Rajagopalachari.

• There is no greater wealth one can acquire than harm (righteousness or virtue) and no misfortune greater than the forgetting of it.

• Keep your mind free from evil thoughts.This is the hole of Dharma.The rest is only of the nature of sound and show.

• True religious life consists in the avoidance of four things:: envy, the craving for pleasure, anger and harsh speech.

• The best inheritance that a father can provide for his son is an education that will fit him to take an honored place among cultured men.

• The son’s greatest filial service is so to conduct myself as to make men say in wonderment: “Great must have been the father’s good deeds to be blessed with such noble son.”

• Without tenderness of heart, the body is but bone veered up with leather.In love alone is the secret of life.

• If it is a good deed, never forget it.But if some one does a wrong, it is good that very day to forget it.

• If a man knows how to control the rising anger in his mind and guards himself against losing his temper, all. other virtues will seek him out and wait on his pleasure.

• Manhood consists in being able to control one’s mind and being proof against amorous thoughts towards one that belongs to another. It is good religion as well as social order.

• If men will see their own faults as they see others verily, evil would come to an end in this world.

• Even by inadvertence, do not think of any act that will hurt another.If you plan evil for any one, the law Nature decrees your own ruin.

• What good did the creatures of the earth do to clouds that pour the rain? So indeed should you serve society, seeking no return.

• Is there anything in much learning if it does not make a man feel the pain of others as keenly as the pain in his body and avoid causing it?

• The six essentials for a prosperous state are adequate army, an industrious people, ample food resources, wise and alert Ministers of State, alliance foreign powers and dependable fortifications.

• Think out fully before launching out on action. To. think of devising ways and means in the course of action is fatal.

• It is folly to imagine that by wrapping oneself in cloth,. one has covered one’s indecency, when the greater indecency of a bad character is still exposed.

• There can be no real union in a community when there. is hatred concealed in the mind.

• Much pain is saved if one learns to eat only what has been found to suit one’s health and to exercise self-restraint in respect of quantity.

• Resolve to labor. wholeheartedly for the honor of your nation and you will find your work bear fruit in a manner not imagined by you.

• Many other industries may be taken up, but ultimately the world depends on agriculture.So, despite its troubles, it is the best occupation.

• You may sometimes speak the harshest things to a man’s face, but do not indulge in the folly of attacking any one behind his back.