I thought to myself, "Come now, I will try self-indulgent pleasure to see if it is worthwhile." But I found that it also is futile.

I said of partying, "It is folly," and of self-indulgent pleasure, "It accomplishes nothing!"

I bought slaves and slave women, and sons of the house were mine; also livestock, a herd and a great flock were mine, above all that were before me in Jerusalem.

All the labor of man is for his mouth [for self-preservation and enjoyment], and yet the desire [of his soul] is not satisfied.

It is better to focus on what you can see than to meander after your self-interest; this also is pointless and a chasing after wind.

Do not be excessively righteous [like those given to self-conceit], and do not be overly wise (pretentious)—why should you bring yourself to ruin?

Use thy self to live joyfully with thy wife whom thou lovest, all the days of thy life which is but vanity, that God hath given thee under the Sun; all the days of thy vanity. For that is thy portion in this life, of all thy labor and travail that thou takest under the Sun.

The words of a wise person win him favor, but the words of a fool are self-destructive.

Blessed are you, O land, when your king is the son of nobility, and your princes feast at the proper time -- with self-control and not in drunkenness.