“All share a common destiny — the righteous and the wicked, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, those who offer sacrifices and those who do not. As it is with the good man, so with the sinner; as it is with those who take oaths, so with those who are afraid to take them…

“…Anyone who is among the living has hope — even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!

“For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing; they have no further reward, and even the memory of them is forgotten.

“Their love, their hate and their jealousy have long since vanished; never again will they have a part in anything that happens under the sun.

“Go, eat your food with gladness, and drink your wine with a joyful heart, for it is now that God favors what you do…

“…Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of your meaningless life that God has given you under the sun.

“Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

“I have seen something else under the sun: The race is not to the swift or the battle to the strong, nor does food come to the wise or wealth to the brilliant or favor to the learned; but time and chance happen to them all.”

–From the book of Ecclesiastes, chapter nine, verses 2, 4-7 and 9-11