I decided to indulge in wine, while still remaining committed to wisdom. I also tried to indulge in foolishness, just enough to determine whether it was good for human beings under heaven given the short time of their lives.

I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly. For what can the man who comes after the king do? Just that which he has already done.

I concluded that wisdom is more useful than foolishness, just as light is more useful than darkness.

For the wise man, like the fool, will not be remembered for very long, because in the days to come, both will already have been forgotten. Alas, the wise man dies -- just like the fool!

And yet I saw under the sun the place of judgment, there the unjust one; and the place of the just one, there the unjust one.

I said in my heart, The just one and the unjust one, God will judge: for a time for every inclination and for every work there.

For what happens to people also happens to animals a single event happens to them: just as someone dies, so does the other. In fact, they all breathe the same way, so that a human being has no superiority over an animal. All of this is pointless.

Just as dreams come when there are many cares, so the rash vow of a fool occurs when there are many words.

Just as there is futility in many dreams, so also in many words. Therefore, fear God!

Just as he came naked from his mother's womb, he will leave as naked as he came; he will receive no profit from his efforts he cannot carry away even a handful.

And this also is a painful evil, just as he came, so he goeth, and what advantage is to him who laboureth for wind?

For wisdom is protection just as money is protection,
But the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the lives of its possessors.

These two things also have I considered in the time of vanity: that the just man perisheth for his righteousness' sake, and the ungodly liveth in his wickedness.

Thou shalt not be greatly just; and thou shalt not be exceedingly wise: wherefore wilt thou be made desolate?

For there is not one just upon earth, that doth good, and sinneth not.

Lo, this only have I found, that God made man just and right, but they seek divers subtleties.

Just as no human being has control over the wind to restrain it, so also no human being has control over the day of his death. Just as no one is discharged during war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.

Yet is there a vanity upon earth: there be just men, unto whom it happeneth, as though they had the works of the ungodly; Again, there be ungodly, with whom it goeth as though they had the works of the righteous. This me think also a vain thing.

For all this I gave to my heart, and to examine all this, that the just and the wise and their works are in the hand of God: also love, also hatred, no man shall know of all before them.

All according to all: one event to the just one and to the unjust one; to the good one and to the clean one, and to the unclean one; to him sacrificing and to him not sacrificing: as the good one, so the sinning one; he swearing, as he who shall fear an oath.

Surely, no one knows his appointed time! Like fish that are caught in a deadly net, and like birds that are caught in a snare -- just like them, all people are ensnared at an unfortunate time that falls upon them suddenly.

Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the activity of God who makes all things.