Dhammapada verse 70
Chapter 5, The Fool (Bālavagga) · verses 60–75
“Month after month a fool may eat food from a grass-blade’s tip; but they’ll never be worth a sixteenth part of one who has appraised the teaching.”
Māse māse kusaggena, bālo bhuñjeyya bhojanaṁ; Na so saṅkhātadhammānaṁ, kalaṁ agghati soḷasiṁ.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 70 mean?
Verse 70 belongs to chapter 5, The Fool (Bālavagga), which gathers verses 60–75 on the fool. It is filed under wisdom & folly. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 69 and verse 71 are part of the same passage.
The fool, in sixteen verses. The chapter is not kind about it: the fool who knows they are a fool is at least partly wise, the fool who thinks they are wise is beyond help, and the harm a fool does lands on themselves first. It includes the image of evil tasting sweet until it ripens.
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