Dhammapada verse 111
Chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga) · verses 100–115
“Better to live a single day wise and absorbed in meditation than to live a hundred years witless and lacking immersion.”
Yo ca vassasataṁ jīve, duppañño asamāhito; Ekāhaṁ jīvitaṁ seyyo, paññavantassa jhāyino.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 111 mean?
Verse 111 belongs to chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga), which gathers verses 100–115 on comparisons with a thousand. It is filed under wisdom & folly, good & evil, the path. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 110 and verse 112 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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