I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and like grasping the wind.

I communed with my own heart, saying, Lo, I have come to greatness, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.

And who knows whether he shall be a wise man or a fool? yet shall he have rule over all my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This is also vanity.

For who can eat, or who else can have enjoyment, more than I?

I have seen the task, which God has given to the sons of men to be occupied in it.

For that which befalls the sons of men befalls beasts; the same thing befalls them: as the one dies, so dies the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man has no advantage over a beast: for all is vanity.

Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labor.

Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone?

There is no end of all the people, even of all that have been before them: they also that come after him shall not rejoice in him. Surely this also is vanity and grasping after the wind.

When you vow a vow unto God, defer not to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools: pay that which you have vowed.

There is a great evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept by their owners to their hurt.

Behold that which I have seen: it is good and fitting for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he takes under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him: for this is his lot.

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, and it is common among men:

For wisdom is a defense, and money is a defense: but the excellence of knowledge is, that wisdom gives life to them that have it.

All things have I seen in the days of my vanity: there is a just man that perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that prolongs his life in his wickedness.

For oftentimes also your own heart knows that you yourself likewise have cursed others.

All this have I proved by wisdom: I said, I will be wise; but it was far from me.

Behold, this have I found, says the preacher, adding one thing to another, to find out the reason:

Which yet my soul seeks, but I find not: one man among a thousand have I found; but a woman among all those have I not found.

Lo, this only have I found, that God has made man upright; but they have sought out many devices.

All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time in which one man rules over another to his own hurt.

For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.

Also their love, and their hatred, and their envy, is now perished; neither have they any more a portion forever in any thing that is done under the sun.

This wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me:

There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as an error which proceeds from the ruler:

I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth.

Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw near, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them;