• Ecclesiastes 2:3-17
  I searched in my heart how to gratify my flesh with wine, while guiding my heart with wisdom, and how to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was good for the sons of men to do under heaven all the days of their lives. I made my works great, I built myself houses, and planted myself vineyards. I made myself gardens and orchards, and I planted all kinds of fruit trees in them. I made myself water pools from which to water the growing trees of the grove. I acquired male and female servants, and had servants born in my house. Yes, I had greater possessions of herds and flocks than all who were in Jerusalem before me. I also gathered for myself silver and gold and the special treasures of kings and of the provinces. I acquired male and female singers, the delights of the sons of men, and musical instruments of all kinds. So I became great and excelled more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. Also my wisdom remained with me.
  Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.
  I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure,
  For my heart rejoiced in all my labor;
  And this was my reward from all my labor.
  Then I looked on all the works that my hands had done
  And on the labor in which I had toiled;
  And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind.
  There was no profit under the sun. Then I turned myself to consider wisdom and madness and folly;
  For what can the man do who succeeds the king?—
  Only what he has already done.
  Then I saw that wisdom excels folly
  As light excels darkness.
  The wise man’s eyes are in his head,
  But the fool walks in darkness.
  Yet I myself perceived
  That the same event happens to them all.
  So I said in my heart,
  “ As it happens to the fool,
  It also happens to me,
  And why was I then more wise?”
  Then I said in my heart,
  “ This also is vanity.”
  For there is no more remembrance of the wise than of the fool forever,
  Since all that now is will be forgotten in the days to come.
  And how does a wise man die?
  As the fool! Therefore I hated life because the work that was done under the sun was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind.
   
• Ecclesiastes 10:12-15
  The words of a wise man’s mouth are gracious,
  But the lips of a fool shall swallow him up;
  The words of his mouth begin with foolishness,
  And the end of his talk is raving madness.
  A fool also multiplies words.
  No man knows what is to be;
  Who can tell him what will be after him?
  The labor of fools wearies them,
  For they do not even know how to go to the city!
  
   

Related Scriptures

• Ecclesiastes 2:1
  I said in my heart, “Come now, I will test you with mirth; therefore enjoy pleasure”; but surely, this also was vanity.
   
• Proverbs 2:6-7
  For the LORD gives wisdom;
  From His mouth come knowledge and understanding;
  He stores up sound wisdom for the upright;
  He is a shield to those who walk uprightly;
  
   
• Ecclesiastes 11:9-10
  Rejoice, O young man, in your youth,
  And let your heart cheer you in the days of your youth;
  Walk in the ways of your heart,
  And in the sight of your eyes;
  But know that for all these
  God will bring you into judgment.
  Therefore remove sorrow from your heart,
  And put away evil from your flesh,
  For childhood and youth are vanity.
   
• 1 Kings 12:6-11
  Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, and he said, “How do you advise me to answer these people?” And they spoke to him, saying, “If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. And he said to them, “What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?” Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us’—thus you shall say to them: ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist! And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!’”