Ecclesiastes 7:1-11

¹A good name is better than precious ointments; and the day of death is better than the day of birth.

²It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to the house of a feast; for in that house of mourning the end of all men is warned of, and a man living thinketh, what is to coming or to come.

³Ire or wrath is better than laugh-ing; for the soul of a trespasser is amended by the heaviness of his cheer.

⁴The heart of wise men is where sorrow is; and the heart of fools is where folly gladness is.

⁵It is better to be reproved of a wise man, than to be deceived by the flattering of fools;

⁶for as the sound of thorns burning under a pot, so is the laughing of a fool. But also this is vanity.

⁷False challenge troubleth a wise man, and it shall lose the strength of his heart.

⁸Forsooth the end of prayer is better than the beginning. A patient man is better than a proud man.

⁹Be thou not swift to be wroth; for ire resteth in the bosom of a fool.

¹⁰Say thou not, What guessest thou is the cause, that the former times were better than be now? for why such asking is fond or foolish.

¹¹Forsooth wisdom with riches is more profitable, and profiteth more to men seeing the sun.