Chris Hedges

The author of Ecclesiastes was a realist. He saw the pathetic, empty monuments we spend a lifetime building to ourselves. He knew, as we read in Ecclesiastes, that nothing is certain or permanent, real or unreal, and that the secret of wisdom is detachment without withdrawal. That since death awaits us all, all is vanity. That we must give up on the childish notion that one is rewarded for virtue or wisdom.