Ecclesiastes Quotes:

As Ecclesiastes tells it, a wholesale devotion to pleasure will, paradoxically, lead to a state of utter despair.

- Philip Yancey

source: Philip Yancey (2002). “The Bible Jesus Read: An Eight-session Exploration of the Old Testament Participant's Guide”, p.97, Harper Collins

topic: Despair, Devotion, Ecclesiastes, Utter Despair

But how can one be warm alone?

- Joseph Heller

source: Joseph Heller (1997). “God Knows”, p.209, Simon and Schuster

topic: Bible, Ecclesiastes, Warm

The Ecclesiastes of the Old Testament says there is no new thing under the sun. We can also say there is no new thing above the sun!

- Mehmet Murat Ildan

topic: Sun, Old Testament, Ecclesiastes, Testament

All things come alike to all; there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not.

- Doris Lessing

source: Doris Lessing (1999). “Ecclesiastes or, The Preacher”, p.30, Canongate Books

topic: Wicked, Events, Ecclesiastes

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.

- Solomon

topic: Done, Sun, Ecclesiastes, Nothing New Under The Sun

In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider.

- Solomon

topic: Adversity, Prosperity, Joyful, Ecclesiastes, Being Joyful

In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.

- Solomon

topic: Grief, Sorrow, Contradicting, Ecclesiastes

Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.

- Solomon

source: "Ecclesiastes". Book by Solomon , 12:13-14, c. 450-200 BCE.

topic: Men, Evil, Secret, Ecclesiastes

All the rivers run into the sea; yet the sea is not full.

- Solomon

topic: Running, Rivers, Sea, Ecclesiastes, Rivers And Water

There is a time to weep and a time to laugh; a time to mourn and a time to dance.

- Solomon

topic: Dance, Dancing, Laughing, Inspirational Bereavement, Inspirational Mourning

Sorrow is better than laughter: for by the sadness of the countenance the heart is made better.

- Solomon

topic: Laughter, Heart, Character, Countenance, Ecclesiastes

Two are better than one,because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, the one will lif' up his fellow, but woe to him that is alone when he falleth, for he hath not another to help him up.

- Solomon

source: John Steinbeck (2016). “The Grapes of Wrath”, p.338, Hamilton Books

topic: Friendship, Best Friend, Fall, Two Best Friends, Good Friendship

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun

- Solomon

topic: Done, Sun, Ecclesiastes, Nothing New, Nothing New Under The Sun

It’s interesting that in the Bible, in the book of Ecclesiastes, the only practical advice given about living a meaningful life is to find a job you like, enjoy your marriage, and obey God. It’s as though God is saying, Write a good story, take somebody with you, and let me help.

- Donald Miller

topic: Meaningful, Jobs, Book, Ecclesiastes

Of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

- Solomon

topic: Book, Flesh, Study, Ecclesiastes

Even a cursory reading of the book of Ecclesiastes shows that culture is a stationary bike that each generation climbs on in hopes of getting somewhere only to die and fall off so that the new young stud can take his turn peddling and, like a fool, make pronouncements about his progress. We would be wise to see postmodernity as simply the new guy on the old bike and not mistake cultural change for kingdom progress.

- Mark Driscoll

topic: Wise, Mistake, Book, Studs, Peddling

A good name is better than precious ointment.

- Solomon

topic: Family, Names, Character And Reputation, Character Of A Man, Ecclesiastes

Horror grows impatient, rhetorically, with the Stoic fatalism of Ecclesiastes. That we are all going to die, that death mocks and cancels every one of our acts and attainments and every moment of our life histories, this knowledge is to storytelling what rust is to oxidation; the writer of horror holds with those who favor fire. The horror writer is not content to report on death as the universal system of human weather; he or she chases tornadoes. Horror is Stoicism with a taste for spectacle.

- Michael Chabon

topic: Weather, Fire, Rust, Fatalism, Ecclesiastes

There is nothing new under the sun.

- Jon Meacham

topic: Sun, Waste Of Life, Ecclesiastes, All Things New, Nothing New

Godly fear, faith, and humility is the true threefold cord that can’t easily be broken (see Ecclesiastes 4:12).

- John Bevere

source: Twitter post from Mar 21, 2014

topic: Ecclesiastes

There is nothing new under the sun, not even Manet.

- Jules Breton

topic: Sun, Originality, Waste Of Life, Ecclesiastes, All Things New

A revival almost always begins among the laity. The ecclesiastical leaders seldom welcome reformation. History repeats itself. The present leaders are too comfortably situated as a rule to desire innovation that might require sacrifice on their part. And God's fire only falls on sacrifice. An empty altar receives no fire!

- Frank Bartleman

topic: Fall, Sacrifice, Fire, Reformation, History Repeats Itself

No Ideas original - there is nothing new under the sun...

- Nas

topic: Ideas, Sun, Waste Of Life, Contradicting, Ecclesiastes

The sun hides not the ocean, which is the dark side of this earth, and which is two thirds of this earth. So, therefore, that mortal man who hath more of joy than sorrow in him, that mortal man cannot be true-- not true, or undeveloped. With books the same. The truest of all men was the Man of Sorrows, and the truest of all books is Solomon’s, and Ecclesiastes is the fine hammered steel of woe.

- Herman Melville

source: Herman Melville (2016). “Moby Dick (World Classics, Unabridged)”, p.293, Vij Books India Pvt Ltd

topic: Ocean, Book, Dark, Hammered, Ecclesiastes

Curse not the king, no not in thy thought; and curse not the rich in thy bedchamber, for a bird of the air shall carry the voice, and that which hath wings shall tell the matter.

- Doris Lessing

source: Doris Lessing (1999). “Ecclesiastes or, The Preacher”, p.34, Canongate Books

topic: Bible, Kings, Air, Ecclesiastes

Book of Ecclesiastes, God is saying... Write a good story, take somebody with you and let me help

- Donald Miller

topic: Book, Writing, Stories, Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes said that "all is vanity," Most modern preachers say the same, or show it By their examples of true Christianity: In short, all know, or very short may know it.

- Lord Byron

source: Lord Byron (1990). “The Sayings of Lord Byron”, p.22, Gerald Duckworth & Co

topic: Vanity, May, Example, Ecclesiastes, True Christianity

Ecclesiastes names thee Almighty, the Maccabees name thee Creator, the Epistle to the Ephesians names thee Liberty, Baruch names thee Immensity, the Psalms name thee Wisdom and Truth, John names thee Light, the Book of Kings names thee Lord, Exodus names thee Providence, Leviticus Sanctity, Esdras Justice, creation names thee God, man names thee Father; but Solomon names thee Compassion, which is the most beautiful of all thy names.

- Victor Hugo

source: Victor Hugo (1980). “Les misérables”, Viking Pr

topic: Beautiful, God, Kings, Leviticus, Ephesians

It has become, in my view, a bit too trendy to regard the acceptance of death as something tantamount to intrinsic dignity. Of course I agree with the preacher of Ecclesiastes that there is a time to love and a time to die - and when my skein runs out I hope to face the end calmly and in my own way. For most situations, however, I prefer the more martial view that death is the ultimate enemy - and I find nothing reproachable in those who rage mightily against the dying of the light.

- Stephen Jay Gould

source: Stephen Jay Gould (2010). “Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History”, p.478, W. W. Norton & Company

topic: Running, Science, Acceptance, Ecclesiastes, Acceptance Of Death