Dhammapada verse 106
Chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga) · verses 100–115
“Rather than a thousandfold sacrifice, every month for a full century, it’s better to honor for a single hour one who has developed themselves. That offering is better than the hundred year sacrifice.”
Māse māse sahassena, yo yajetha sataṁ samaṁ; Ekañca bhāvitattānaṁ, muhuttamapi pūjaye; Sāyeva pūjanā seyyo, yañce vassasataṁ hutaṁ.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 106 mean?
Verse 106 belongs to chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga), which gathers verses 100–115 on comparisons with a thousand. It is filed under good & evil, giving & merit. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 105 and verse 107 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.
More verses on this