Dhammapada verse 110
Chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga) · verses 100–115
“Better to live a single day ethical and absorbed in meditation than to live a hundred years unethical and lacking immersion.”
Yo ca vassasataṁ jīve, dussīlo asamāhito; Ekāhaṁ jīvitaṁ seyyo, sīlavantassa jhāyino.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 110 mean?
Verse 110 belongs to chapter 8, The Thousands (Sahassavagga), which gathers verses 100–115 on comparisons with a thousand. It is filed under good & evil, the path. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 109 and verse 111 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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