Dhammapada verse 103
Chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga) · verses 100–115
“The supreme conqueror is not he who conquers a million men in battle, but he who conquers a single man: himself.”
Yo sahassaṁ sahassena, saṅgāme mānuse jine; Ekañca jeyyamattānaṁ, sa ve saṅgāmajuttamo.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 103 mean?
Verse 103 belongs to chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga), which gathers verses 100–115 on comparisons with a thousand. It is filed under good & evil. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 102 and verse 104 are part of the same passage.
Sixteen verses that keep comparing one thing to a thousand. A single meaningful saying beats a thousand meaningless ones, one day of the disciplined life beats a hundred years of the undisciplined, and the chapter turns that arithmetic toward what a person does rather than what they recite.
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