Tirukkural-On Virtue-On Self Restraint-Kural 129

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The injury resulting from a burn heals, but not the ugly scar that is caused by an offending word.

A burn and a physical hurt will heal inside and out, but the rankling personal hurt caused by an insulting word can never be erased. People forget ordinary injustices and even physical assaults, but they do not forgive an insult. When the Book of Proverbs from the Bible, poses the following question.

'But a wounded spirit, who can bear?'

(Proverbs 18:14)

the underlying meaning is the same as Valluvar's

'An ungodly man diggeth up evil, and in his
lips there is burning fire'

(Proverbs 16, 27)

similar ideas are implied in the following passage from Valayapadi, which describes the destruction wrought by an unguarded tongue thus:

Aaakapadukkum arundhalaivaai paeivikkum
Poakkapadukkum pulainarakathuip Pikkum
Kaakapaduvana vindhiriya maindhanul
Naakalla thillai nani Paenutharkae.

the master of the inevitable word that Thiruvalluvar was, he was used the word 'Pun' meaning 'wound' to indicate the hurt that heals, and the word 'Vadu' meaning 'scar' to show the hurt that stays.