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Better than a thousand useless words
is one useful word,
hearing which one attains peace.
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Better than a thousand useless verses
is one useful verse,
hearing which one attains peace.
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Better than reciting a hundred meaningless verses
is the reciting of one verse of Dhamma,
hearing which one attains peace.
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Though one may conquer a thousand times
a thousand men in battle,
yet he indeed is the noblest victor
who conquers himself.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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To one ever eager
to revere and serve the elders,
these four blessing accrue:
long life and beauty, happiness and power.
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Better it is to live one day virtuous and meditative
than to live a hundred years immoral and uncontrolled.
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Better it is to live one day wise and meditative
than to live a hundred years foolish and uncontrolled.
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Better it is to live one day strenuous and resolute
than to live a hundred years sluggish and dissipated.
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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.
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Better it is to live one day seeing the Deathless
than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the Deathless.
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Better it is to live one day seeing the Supreme Truth
than to live a hundred years without ever seeing the Supreme Truth.