Ecclesiastes 7:1-8
Authorized (King James) Version
7 A good name is better than precious ointment;
and the day of death than the day of one’s birth.
2 It is better to go to the house of mourning,
than to go to the house of feasting:
for that is the end of all men;
and the living will lay it to his heart.
3 Sorrow is better than laughter:
for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.
4 The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning;
but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
5 It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise,
than for a man to hear the song of fools.
6 For as the crackling of thorns under a pot,
so is the laughter of the fool:
this also is vanity.
7 Surely oppression maketh a wise man mad;
and a gift destroyeth the heart.
8 Better is the end of a thing than the beginning thereof:
and the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit.
KJV reproduced by permission of Cambridge University Press, the Crown’s patentee in the UK.