For like the crackling of quick-burning thorns under a cooking pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This kind of folly also is useless.

Do not let yourself be quickly provoked, for anger resides in the lap of fools.

For wisdom provides protection, just as money provides protection. But the advantage of knowledge is this: Wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

Consider the work of God: For who can make straight what he has bent?

For there is not one truly righteous person on the earth who continually does good and never sins.

For you know in your own heart that you also have cursed others many times.

Send your grain overseas, for after many days you will get a return.

Banish emotional stress from your mind. and put away pain from your body; for youth and the prime of life are fleeting.

For the fate of humans and the fate of animals are the same: As one dies, so dies the other; both have the same breath. There is no advantage for humans over animals, for both are fleeting.

Again, I observed this on the earth: the race is not always won by the swiftest, the battle is not always won by the strongest; prosperity does not always belong to those who are the wisest, wealth does not always belong to those who are the most discerning, nor does success always come to those with the most knowledge – for time and chance may overcome them all.

Next, I decided to consider wisdom, as well as foolish behavior and ideas. For what more can the king’s successor do than what the king has already done?

For the wise man, like the fool, will not be remembered for very long, because in the days to come, both will already have been forgotten. Alas, the wise man dies – just like the fool!

For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge, and skill; however, he must hand over the fruit of his labor as an inheritance to someone else who did not work for it. This also is futile, and an awful injustice!

For all day long his work produces pain and frustration, and even at night his mind cannot relax! This also is futile!

There is nothing better for people than to eat and drink, and to find enjoyment in their work. I also perceived that this ability to find enjoyment comes from God.

I thought to myself, “God will judge both the righteous and the wicked; for there is an appropriate time for every activity, and there is a time of judgment for every deed.

For if they fall, one will help his companion up, but pity the person who falls down and has no one to help him up.

When you make a vow to God, do not delay in paying it. For God takes no pleasure in fools: Pay what you vow!

When someone’s prosperity increases, those who consume it also increase; so what does its owner gain, except that he gets to see it with his eyes?

Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these days?” for it is not wise to ask that.