Quotes about Mortality
I sought to cheer my body with wine and to embrace folly—my mind still guiding me with wisdom—until I could see what was worthwhile for men to do under heaven during the few days of their lives.
— Ecclesiastes 2:3
For there is no lasting remembrance of the wise, just as with the fool, seeing that both will be forgotten in the days to come. Alas, the wise man will die just like the fool!
— Ecclesiastes 2:16
I hated all for which I had toiled under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me.
— Ecclesiastes 2:18
For the fates of both men and beasts are the same: As one dies, so dies the other—they all have the same breath. Man has no advantage over the animals, since everything is futile.
— Ecclesiastes 3:19
All go to one place; all come from dust, and all return to dust.
— Ecclesiastes 3:20
Who knows if the spirit of man rises upward and the spirit of the animal descends into the earth?
— Ecclesiastes 3:21
So I admired the dead, who had already died, above the living, who are still alive.
— Ecclesiastes 4:2
But better than both is he who has not yet existed, who has not seen the evil that is done under the sun.
— Ecclesiastes 4:3
This too is a grievous evil: Exactly as a man is born, so he will depart. What does he gain as he toils for the wind?
— Ecclesiastes 5:16
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.
— Ecclesiastes 6:3
even if he lives a thousand years twice over but fails to enjoy his prosperity. Do not all go to the same place?
— Ecclesiastes 6:6
For who knows what is good for a man during the few days in which he passes through his fleeting life like a shadow? Who can tell a man what will come after him under the sun?
— Ecclesiastes 6:12