The end of a matter [is] better than its beginning; {better to be slow to anger than hot-headed}.

{For wisdom offers protection like money offers protection}. But knowledge [has] an advantage--wisdom restores life to its possessor.

Do not say, "Why were the former days better than these?" For [it is] not from wisdom [that] you ask this.

Wisdom [is] good with an inheritance; {it benefits the living}.

In the day of prosperity, rejoice! But in the day of adversity, consider! For God made one in place of another so that mortals cannot find out what will happen {in the future}.

Consider the work of God. For who is able to make straight what he made crooked?

Do not pay attention to everything people say, lest you hear your own servant curse you.

Wisdom gives more strength to the wise than ten rulers who are in the city.

[It is] good to take hold of the one and also must not let go of the other; for whoever fears God will hold both of them secure.

I myself found [that] more bitter than death [is] the woman who [is] a trap, whose heart [is] a snare, and whose hands [are] bonds. The one who pleases God escapes from her, but the sinner is caught by her.

I have seen all these things in my vain life: Sometimes a righteous man perishes in [spite of] his righteousness, and sometimes a wicked man lives a long life in [spite of] his evil.

Do not act excessively wicked, and do not be a fool, lest you die before your time.

{Whatever is--it is far beyond comprehension}. Who can discover it?

Do not be excessively righteous, and do not act excessively wise, lest you destroy yourself.

Better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for [death is] the end of every person, and the living should take [it] to his heart.

Sorrow [is] better than laughter, for by sadness of countenance the heart is made good.

I set my mind to try to seek wisdom and the plan, and to know that wickedness [is] foolishness and that folly [is] delusion.

All this I have tested with wisdom. I said, "I will be wise!" but {it was beyond my grasp}.

Better to listen to [the] rebuke of [the] wise than for a man to listen to [the] song of fools.

For your heart knows that you also have cursed others many times.

Surely oppression makes a fool of the wise, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

What my heart sought, I did not find. Although I found one righteous man among one thousand, I did not find one [upright] woman among all these.

"Look! I found this," said the Teacher, "while trying to find how the plan fits together.

The heart of the wise [is] in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools [is] in the house of mirth.

Like the sound of thorns under a pot, so also the laughter of fools. This also [is] vanity!

Surely there is no one righteous on the earth who [continually] does good and never sins.

Do not be quick in your spirit to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.

A good name [is] better than precious ointment, and the day of death [is better] than the day of one's birth.

Look! This alone I found: God made mankind upright, but they have devised many schemes."