All the rivers go down to the sea, but the sea is not full; to the place where the rivers go, there they go again.

I got men-servants and women-servants, and they gave birth to sons and daughters in my house. I had great wealth of herds and flocks, more than all who were in Jerusalem before me.

I said in my heart, It is because of the sons of men, so that God may put them to the test and that they may see themselves as beasts.

And again I saw all the cruel things which are done under the sun; there was the weeping of those who have evil done to them, and they had no comforter: and from the hands of the evil-doers there went out power, but they had no comforter.

Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their work.

So again, if two are sleeping together they are warm, but how may one be warm by himself?

There was no end of all the people, of all those whose head he was, but they who come later will have no delight in him. This again is to no purpose and desire for wind.

If you see the poor under a cruel yoke, and law and right being violently overturned in a country, be not surprised, because one authority is keeping watch on another and there are higher than they.

This only have I seen, that God made men upright, but they have been searching out all sorts of inventions.

And then I saw evil men put to rest, taken even from the holy place; and they went about and were praised in the town because of what they had done. This again is to no purpose.

This is evil in all things which are done under the sun: that there is one fate for all, and the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil; while they have life their hearts are foolish, and after that--to the dead.

The living are conscious that death will come to them, but the dead are not conscious of anything, and they no longer have a reward, because there is no memory of them.

Their love and their hate and their envy are now ended; and they have no longer a part for ever in anything which is done under the sun.

If the clouds are full of rain, they send it down on the earth; and if a tree comes down to the south, or the north, in whatever place it comes down, there it will be.

But even if a man's life is long and he has joy in all his years, let him keep in mind the dark days, because they will be great in number. Whatever may come is to no purpose.

The words of the wise are pointed, and sayings grouped together are like nails fixed with a hammer; they are given by one guide.