I, the Teacher, have been king over Israel in Jerusalem.

I said to myself, “Look, I have amassed wisdom far beyond all those who were over Jerusalem before me, and my mind has thoroughly grasped wisdom and knowledge.”

And I realized that there is an advantage to wisdom over folly, like the advantage of light over darkness.

And who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will take over all my work that I labored at skillfully under the sun. This too is futile.

So I began to give myself over to despair concerning all my work that I had labored at under the sun.

For the fate of people and the fate of animals is the same. As one dies, so dies the other; they all have the same breath. People have no advantage over animals since everything is futile.

What advantage then does the wise man have over the fool? What advantage is there for the poor person who knows how to conduct himself before others?

No one has authority over the wind to restrain it, and there is no authority over the day of death; there is no furlough in battle, and wickedness will not allow those who practice it to escape.

All this I have seen, applying my mind to all the work that is done under the sun, at a time when one man has authority over another to his harm.

The calm words of the wise are heeded
more than the shouts of a ruler over fools.