Study Desk

the time for 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.

He has set the right time for everything. He has given us a desire to know the future, but never gives us the satisfaction of fully understanding what he does.

All of us should eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for. It is God's gift.

After all, the same fate awaits human beings and animals alike. One dies just like the other. They are the same kind of creature. A human being is no better off than an animal, because life has no meaning for either.

So I realized then that the best thing we can do is enjoy what we have worked for. There is nothing else we can do. There is no way for us to know what will happen after we die.

Here is someone who lives alone. He has no son, no brother, yet he is always working, never satisfied with the wealth he has. For whom is he working so hard and denying himself any pleasure? This is useless, too—and a miserable way to live.

There may be no limit to the number of people a king rules; when he is gone, no one will be grateful for what he has done. It is useless. It is like chasing the wind.

So when you make a promise to God, keep it as quickly as possible. He has no use for a fool. Do what you promise to do.

Don't let your own words lead you into sin, so that you have to tell God's priest that you didn't mean it. Why make God angry with you? Why let him destroy what you have worked for?

Here is a terrible thing that I have seen in this world: people save up their money for a time when they may need it,

Here is what I have found out: the best thing we can do is eat and drink and enjoy what we have worked for during the short life that God has given us; this is our fate.

If God gives us wealth and property and lets us enjoy them, we should be grateful and enjoy what we have worked for. It is a gift from God.

How can anyone know what is best for us in this short, useless life of ours—a life that passes like a shadow? How can we know what will happen in the world after we die?

It is better to go to a home where there is mourning than to one where there is a party, because the living should always remind themselves that death is waiting for us all.

When things are going well for you, be glad, and when trouble comes, just remember: God sends both happiness and trouble; you never know what is going to happen next.

Avoid both extremes. If you have reverence for God, you will be successful anyway.

Wisdom does more for a person than ten rulers can do for a city.

How can anyone discover what life means? It is too deep for us, too hard to understand.

Yes, said the Philosopher, I found this out little by little while I was looking for answers.