The Value of Wisdom

7 A good name is better than fine perfume, and one’s day of death [is better] than his day of birth.

2 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.

3 Sorrow is better than laughter, for a sad countenance is good for the heart.

4 The heart of the wise [is] in the house of mourning, but the heart of fools is in the house of pleasure.

5 It is better to heed a wise man’s rebuke than to listen to the song of fools.

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

7 Surely extortion turns a wise man into a fool, and a bribe corrupts the heart.

8 The end of a matter is better than the beginning, [and] a patient spirit is better than a proud [one].

9 Do not be quickly provoked in your spirit, for anger settles in the lap of a fool.[fn]

10 Do not say, “Why were the old days better than these?” For it is unwise of you to ask about this.

11 Wisdom, like an inheritance, [is] good, and it benefits those who see the sun.

12 For wisdom like money, [is] a shelter, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of its owner.

13 Consider the work of God: Who can straighten what He has bent?

14 In the day of prosperity, be joyful, but in the day of adversity, consider this God has made one [of these] along with the other, so that a man cannot discover anything that will come after him.