Dhammapada Verses on Wisdom

“When others do not understand, let us, who do understand this, restrain ourselves in this regard; for that is how conflicts are laid to rest.”

“Little though they may recite scripture, if they live in line with the teaching, having given up greed, hate, and delusion, with deep understanding and heart well freed, not grasping to this life or the next, they share in the blessings of the ascetic life.”

“Understanding this distinction when it comes to heedfulness, the astute rejoice in heedfulness, happy in the noble ones’ domain.”

“Fools and simpletons devote themselves to negligence. But the wise protect diligence as their best treasure.”

“When the astute dispel negligence by means of diligence, ascending the palace of wisdom, sorrowless, they behold this generation of sorrow, as an attentive one on a mountain top beholds the fools below.”

“Those of unsteady mind, who don’t understand the true teaching, and whose confidence wavers, do not perfect their wisdom.”

“Knowing this body breaks like a pot, and fortifying the mind like a citadel, attack Māra with the sword of wisdom, guard your conquest, and never settle.”

“So too, among those thought of as trash, a disciple of the perfect Buddha outshines with their wisdom the blind ordinary folk.”

“Long is the night for the wakeful; long is the league for the weary; long transmigrate the fools who don’t understand the true teaching.”

“If while wandering you find no partner equal or better than yourself, then firmly resolve to wander alone— there’s no fellowship with fools.”

““Sons are mine, wealth is mine”— thus the fool frets. For even your self is not your own, let alone your sons or wealth.”

“The fool who thinks they’re a fool is wise at least to that extent. But the true fool is said to be one who imagines that they are wise.”

“Though a fool attends to the wise even for the rest of their life, they still don’t understand the teaching, like a spoon the taste of the soup.”

“If a clever person attends to the wise even just for an hour or so, they swiftly understand the teaching, like a tongue the taste of the soup.”

“Fools and simpletons behave like their own worst enemies, doing wicked deeds that ripen as bitter fruit.”

“The fool imagines that evil is sweet, so long as it has not yet ripened. But as soon as that evil ripens, they fall into suffering.”

“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.”

“For a wicked deed that has been done does not curdle quickly like milk. Smoldering, it follows the fool, like a fire smothered over with ash.”

“Whatever fame a fool may get, it only gives rise to harm. Whatever good features they have it ruins, and blows their head into bits.”

““Let both layfolk and renunciants think the work was done by me alone. In anything at all that’s to be done, let them fall under my sway alone.” So thinks the fool, their greed and pride only growing.”

“For the means to profit and the path to quenching are two quite different things. A mendicant disciple of the Buddha, understanding what this really means, would never delight in honors, but rather would foster seclusion.”

“As the wind cannot stir a solid mass of rock, so too blame and praise do not affect the wise.”

“Never wish for success by unjust means, for your own sake or that of another, desiring children, wealth, or nation; rather, be virtuous, wise, and just.”

“Better to live a single day wise and absorbed in meditation than to live a hundred years witless and lacking immersion.”

“Think not lightly of evil, that it won’t come back to you. The pot is filled with water falling drop by drop; the fool is filled with wickedness piled up bit by bit.”

“Whoever wrongs a man who has done no wrong, a pure man who has not a blemish, the evil backfires on the fool, like fine dust thrown upwind.”

“The fool does not understand the evil that they do. But because of those deeds, that simpleton is tormented as if burnt by fire.”

“A person of little learning ages like an ox— their flesh grows, but not their wisdom.”

“Come, see this world decked out like a fancy royal chariot. Here fools founder, but the discerning are not chained.”

“The miserly don’t ascend to heaven, it takes a fool to not praise giving. The attentive celebrate giving, and so find happiness in the hereafter.”

“Even if it were raining money, you’d not be sated in sensual pleasures. An astute person understands that sensual pleasures offer little gratification and much suffering.”

“One gone for refuge to the Buddha, to his teaching and to the Saṅgha, sees the four noble truths with right understanding:”

“It’s good to see the noble ones, staying with them is always good. Were you not to see fools, you’d always be happy.”

“For one who consorts with fools grieves long. Painful is living with fools, like being stuck with your enemy. Happy is living with an attentive one, like meeting with your kin.”

“Therefore: An attentive one, wise and learned, a behemoth of virtue, true to their vows, noble: follow a true and intelligent person such as this, as the moon tracks the path of the stars.”

“If, after watching them day in day out, discerning people praise that sage of impeccable conduct, endowed with ethics and wisdom;”

“Make an island of yourself! Swiftly strive, learn to be wise! Purged of stains, flawless, you’ll go to the heavenly realm of the noble ones.”

“Make an island of yourself! Swiftly strive, learn to be wise! Purged of stains, flawless, you’ll not come again to rebirth and old age.”

“But a worse stain than these is ignorance, the worst stain of all. Having given up that stain, be without stains, mendicants!”

“A wise one judges others without haste, justly and impartially; that guardian of the law is said to be just.”

“You don’t become a sage by being sagelike, while still confused and ignorant. The astute one who holds the scales, taking only the best,”

“When you all are practicing this, you’ll make an end of suffering. I have explained the path to you for extracting the thorn with wisdom.”

“All conditions are impermanent— when this is seen with wisdom, one grows disillusioned with suffering: this is the path to purity.”

“All conditions are suffering— when this is seen with wisdom, one grows disillusioned with suffering: this is the path to purity.”

“All things are not-self— when this is seen with wisdom, one grows disillusioned with suffering: this is the path to purity.”

“From meditation springs wisdom, without meditation, wisdom ends. Knowing these two paths— of progress and decline— you should conduct yourself so that wisdom grows.”

““Here I will stay for the rains; here for winter, here the summer”; thus the fool thinks, not realizing the danger.”

“It’s better to wander alone, there’s no fellowship with fools. Wander alone and do no wrong, at ease like a tusker in the wilds.”

“It’s a blessing to keep precepts until you grow old; a blessing to be grounded in faith; the getting of wisdom’s a blessing; and it’s a blessing to avoid doing wrong.”

“The streams flow everywhere; a weed springs up and remains. Seeing this weed that has been born, cut the root with wisdom.”

“Rid of craving, free of grasping, expert in the definition of terms, knowing the correct structure and sequence of syllables, they are said to be one who bears their final body, one of great wisdom, a great person.”

“No absorption for one without wisdom, no wisdom for one without absorption. But one with absorption and wisdom— they have truly drawn near to extinguishment.”

“This is the very start of the path for a wise mendicant here: guarding the senses, contentment, and restraint in the monastic code.”

“They understand for themselves the end of suffering in this life; with burden put down, detached: that’s who I declare a brahmin.”

“Deep in wisdom, intelligent, expert in the path and what is not the path; arrived at the highest goal: that’s who I declare a brahmin.”