Ecclesiastes 4:6-8

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition

⁶ Better is a handful with quietness than both hands full with painful effort, a vain striving after the wind and a feeding on it.

⁷ Then I returned, and I saw vanity under the sun [in one of its peculiar forms].

⁸ Here is one alone—no one with him; he neither has child nor brother. Yet there is no end to all his labor, neither is his eye satisfied with riches, neither does he ask, For whom do I labor and deprive myself of good? This is also vanity (emptiness, falsity, and futility); yes, it is a painful effort and an unhappy business.^(A)