9. So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also remained with me.
10. Whatever my eyes desired, I didn’t keep from them. I didn’t withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor.
11. Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
12. I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly: for what can the king’s successor do? Just that which has been done long ago.
13. Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness.
14. The wise man’s eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness—and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all.