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The wise have eyes in their head, but fools walk in darkness. Yet I perceived that the same fate befalls all of them.
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Then I said to myself, ‘What happens to the fool will happen to me also; why then have I been so very wise?’ And I said to myself that this also is vanity.
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For there is no enduring remembrance of the wise or of fools, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. How can the wise die just like fools?
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—and who knows whether they will be wise or foolish? Yet they will be master of all for which I toiled and used my wisdom under the sun. This also is vanity.
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Fools fold their hands and consume their own flesh.
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Better is a poor but wise youth than an old but foolish king, who will no longer take advice.
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Reverence, Humility, and Contentment
Guard your steps when you go to the house of God; to draw near to listen is better than the sacrifice offered by fools; for they do not know how to keep from doing evil.
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For dreams come with many cares, and a fool’s voice with many words.
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When you make a vow to God, do not delay fulfilling it; for he has no pleasure in fools. Fulfil what you vow.
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For what advantage have the wise over fools? And what do the poor have who know how to conduct themselves before the living?
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The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning; but the heart of fools is in the house of mirth.
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It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than to hear the song of fools.
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For like the crackling of thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of fools; this also is vanity.
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Surely oppression makes the wise foolish, and a bribe corrupts the heart.
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Do not be quick to anger, for anger lodges in the bosom of fools.
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Do not be too wicked, and do not be a fool; why should you die before your time?
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I turned my mind to know and to search out and to seek wisdom and the sum of things, and to know that wickedness is folly and that foolishness is madness.
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The quiet words of the wise are more to be heeded than the shouting of a ruler among fools.
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The heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of a fool to the left.
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Even when fools walk on the road, they lack sense, and show to everyone that they are fools.
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Words spoken by the wise bring them favour, but the lips of fools consume them.
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The words of their mouths begin in foolishness, and their talk ends in wicked madness;
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yet fools talk on and on. No one knows what is to happen, and who can tell anyone what the future holds?
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The toil of fools wears them out, for they do not even know the way to town.
