Dhammapada

8. The Thousands

  1. Better than a thousand useless words
    is one useful word,
    hearing which one attains peace.
  2. Better than a thousand useless verses
    is one useful verse,
    hearing which one attains peace.
  3. Better than reciting a hundred meaningless verses
    is the reciting of one verse of Dhamma,
    hearing which one attains peace.
  4. Though one may conquer a thousand times
    a thousand men in battle,
    yet he indeed is the noblest victor
    who conquers himself.
  5. Self-conquest is far better
    than the conquest of others.
    Not even a god, an angel, Mara or Brahma
    can turn into defeat the victory
    of a person who is self-subdued
    and ever restrained in conduct.
  6. Though month after month for a hundred years
    one should offer sacrifices by the thousands,
    yet if only for a moment
    one should worship those of perfected minds
    that honor is indeed better
    than a century of sacrifice.
  7. Though for a hundred years
    one should tend the sacrificial fire in the forest,
    yet if only for a moment
    one should worship those of perfected minds,
    that worship is indeed better
    than a century of sacrifice.
  8. Whatever gifts and oblations
    one seeking merit
    might offer in this world for a whole year,
    all that is not worth one fourth of the merit
    gained by revering the Upright Ones,
    which is truly excellent.
  9. To one ever eager
    to revere and serve the elders,
    these four blessing accrue:
    long life and beauty, happiness and power.
  10. Better it is to live one day virtuous and meditative
    than to live a hundred years immoral and uncontrolled.
  11. Better it is to live one day wise and meditative
    than to live a hundred years foolish and uncontrolled.
  12. Better it is to live one day strenuous and resolute
    than to live a hundred years sluggish and dissipated.
  13. Better it is to live one day
    seeing the rise and fall of things
    than to live a hundred years
    without ever seeing the rise and fall of things.
  14. Better it is to live one day seeing the Deathless
    than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the Deathless.
  15. Better it is to live one day seeing the Supreme Truth
    than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the Supreme Truth.