New American Standard Bible

Ecclesiastes 1:14-18 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

14. I have seen all the works which have been done under the sun, and behold, all is vanity and striving after wind.

15. What is crooked cannot be straightened and what is lacking cannot be counted.

16. I said to myself, "Behold, I have magnified and increased wisdom more than all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has observed a wealth of wisdom and knowledge."

17. And I set my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly; I realized that this also is striving after wind.

18. Because in much wisdom there is much grief, and increasing knowledge results in increasing pain.