What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again.
(Ecclesiastes 1:9)
To increase knowledge only increases distress.
(Ecclesiastes 1:18, Living Bible)
The wiser you are, the more worries you have; the more you know, the more it hurts.
(Ecclesiastes 1:18, Good News Bible)
The best thing a man can do is eat and drink and enjoy what he has earned.
(Ecclesiastes 2:24, Good News Bible)
There is a time for everything.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1)
Everything that happens in this world happens at the time God chooses.
He sets the time for birth and the time for death,
the time for planting and the time for pulling up,
the time for killing and the time for healing,\the time for tearing down and the time for building.
He sets the time for sorrow and the time for joy,
the time for mourning and the time for dancing,
the time for making love and the time for not making love,
the time for kissing and the time for not kissing.
He sets the time for finding and the time for losing,
the time for saving and the time for throwing away,
the time fort tearing and the time for mending,
the time for silence and the time for talk.
He sets the time for love and the time for hate,
the time for war and the time for peace.
(Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, Good News Bible)
The basic motive for success is the driving force of envy and jealousy.
(Ecclesiastes 4:4, Living Bible)
Pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up.
(Ecclesiastes 4:10)
Don’t say any more than you have to.
(Ecclesiastes 5:2)
Think before you speak, and don’t make any rash promises to God.
(Ecclesiastes 5:2, Good News Bible)
The more you talk, the more likely you are to say something foolish.
(Ecclesiastes 5:3, Good News Bible)
God has no pleasure in fools.
(Ecclesiastes 5:4)
Dreaming instead of doing is foolishness.
(Ecclesiastes 5:7, Living Bible)
The profit of the earth is for all.
(Ecclesiastes 5:9)
If you love money, you will never be satisfied.
(Ecclesiastes 5:10, Good News Bible)
We leave this world just as we entered it - with nothing. In spite of all our work there is nothing we can take with us.
(Ecclesiastes 5:15, Good News Bible)
The best thing anyone can do is eat and drink and enjoy what he has worked for during the short life that God has given him.
(Ecclesiastes 5:18, Good News Bible)
It is better to be satisfied with what you have than to be always wanting something else.
(Ecclesiastes 6:9, Good News Bible)
The day you die is better than the day you were born.
(Ecclesiastes 7:1)
The end of something is better than the beginning. Patience is better than pride.
(Ecclesiastes 7:8, Good News Bible)
Don’t long for the “good old days,” for you don’t know whether they were any better than these.
(Ecclesiastes 7:10, Living Bible)
Don’t fight the facts of nature.
(Ecclesiastes 7:13, Living Bible)
Be not morbidly exacting and externally righteous overmuch, neither strive to make yourself pretentiously appear otherwise.
(Ecclesiastes 7:16)
Tackle every task that comes along and if you fear God you can expect his blessing.
(Ecclesiastes 7:18, Living Bible)
is not a righteous man on earth who does what is right and never sins.
(Ecclesiastes 7:20)
There is no one on earth who does what is right all the time and neve makes a mistake.
(Ecclesiastes 7:20, Good News Bible)
God made us plain and simple, but we have made ourselves very complicated.
(Ecclesiastes 7:29)
There is a right tine and a right way to do everything.
(Ecclesiastes 8:6, Good News Bible)
Because God does not punish sinners instantly, people feel it is safe to do wrong.
(Ecclesiastes 8:11, Living Bible)
All things come to all alike.
(Ecclesiastes 9:2)
Everyone who is alive in the world of the living has some hope.
(Ecclesiastes 9:4)
Work hard at whatever you do, because there will be no action, no thought, no knowledge, no wisdom in the world of the dead.
(Ecclesiastes 9:10, Good News Bible)
It is better to listen to the quiet words of a wise man than to the shouts of a ruler at a council of fools.
(Ecclesiastes 9:17, Good News Bible)
Give generously, for your gifts will return later.
(Ecclesiastes 11:1, Living Bible)
It is wonderful to be alive!
(Ecclesiastes 11:7, Living Bible)
It is good to be alive to enjoy the pleasant light of day.
(Ecclesiastes 11:7, Good News Bible)
Remember your Creator while you are still young.
(Ecclesiastes 12:1, Good News Bible)
Our bodies will return to the dust of the earth, and the breath of life will go back to God, who gave it to us.
(Ecclesiastes 12:7, Good News Bible)
Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
(Ecclesiastes 12:13)