Dhammapada verse 25
Chapter 2, Diligence (Appamādavagga) · verses 21–32
“By hard work and diligence, by restraint and by self-control, a smart person would build an island that the floods cannot overflow.”
Uṭṭhānenappamādena, saṁyamena damena ca; Dīpaṁ kayirātha medhāvī, yaṁ ogho nābhikīrati.
English by Bhikkhu Sujato (CC0, via SuttaCentral)
What does Dhammapada verse 25 mean?
Verse 25 belongs to chapter 2, Diligence (Appamādavagga), which gathers verses 21–32 on heedfulness and negligence. It is filed under self-discipline. Read it with the verses around it: the Dhammapada arranges chapters as short runs, not as isolated lines, so verse 24 and verse 26 are part of the same passage.
This chapter is built on one opposition: heedfulness and negligence. Its twelve verses return again and again to the claim that the heedful person does not fall where the negligent one does, and it closes with a portrait of the diligent practitioner advancing like fire. Verses 21–23 are the ones usually quoted on death and the deathless.
More verses on this