Thus I have considered all the things that come to pass under the Sun, and lo, they are all but vanity and vexation of mind.

Then said I thus in my heart, "Now go to, I will take mine ease and have good days." But lo, that was vanity also:

So I became great and surpassed all who were before me in Jerusalem; my wisdom also remained with me.

And look whatsoever mine eyes desired, I let them have it: and wherein soever my heart delighted, or had any pleasure, I withheld it not from it. Thus my heart rejoiced in all that I did, and this I took for the portion of all my travail.

Thus I considered all my activities which my hands had done and the labor which I had exerted, and behold all was vanity and striving after wind and there was no profit under the sun.

Thus turned, I, to look at wisdom, and madness and folly, - for what can the man do more who cometh after the king? save that which, already, men have done.

Thus began I to be weary of my life, in so much that I could away with nothing that is done under the Sun, for all was but vanity and vexation of mind:

Thus I hated all the fruit of my labor for which I had labored under the sun, for I must leave it to the man who will come after me.

I said in my heart, It is thus with the children of men, that God may prove them, and that they should see that they themselves are but beasts.

There is one man, no more but himself alone, having neither child nor brother: yet is there no end of his careful travail, his eyes cannot be satisfied with riches. Yet, doth he not remember himself, and say, "For whom do I take such travail? For whose pleasure do I thus consume away my life?" This is also a vain and miserable thing.

This also is a grievous evil—exactly as a man is born, thus will he die. So what is the advantage to him who toils for the wind?

So then, I have seen the wicked buried, those who used to go in and out from the holy place, and they are soon forgotten in the city where they did thus. This too is futility.

This an evil in all being done under the sun, thus one event is to all: and also the heart of the sons of man being full of evil, and folly in their heart in their living, and after it to their deaths.