Quotes About Meaning

So my heart began to despair over all the labor that I had done under the sun.

For what does a man get for all the toil and striving with which he labors under the sun?

Indeed, all his days are filled with grief, and his task is sorrowful; even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is futile.

For apart from Him, who can eat and who can find enjoyment?

What does the worker gain from his toil?

So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.

Again, I saw futility under the sun.

A man may father a hundred children and live for many years; yet no matter how long he lives, if he is unsatisfied with his prosperity and does not even receive a proper burial, I say that a stillborn child is better off than he.

For a stillborn child enters in futility and departs in darkness, and his name is shrouded in obscurity.

even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?

For the more words, the more futility—and how does that profit anyone?

A good name is better than fine perfume, and oneís day of death is better than his day of birth.

It is better to enter a house of mourning than a house of feasting, since death is the end of every man, and the living should take this to heart.

For like the crackling of thorns under the pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This too is futile.

I saw every work of God, and that a man is unable to comprehend the work that is done under the sun. Despite his efforts to search it out, he cannot find its meaning; even if the wise man claims to know, he is unable to comprehend.

“Futility of futilities,” says the Teacher. “Everything is futile!”

The Teacher searched to find delightful sayings and to record accurate words of truth.

When all has been heard, the conclusion of the matter is this: Fear God and keep His commandments, because this is the whole duty of man.

“What good to Me is your multitude of sacrifices?” says the LORD. “I am full from the burnt offerings of rams and the fat of well-fed cattle; I take no delight in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats.

He brings the princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth meaningless.

For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut down a tree from the forest; it is shaped with a chisel by the hands of a craftsman.

Can wood be taken from it to make something useful? Or can one make from it a peg on which to hang utensils?

Then the people asked me, “Wonít you tell us what these things you are doing mean to us?”

he said to them, “I have had a dream, and my spirit is anxious to understand it.”