Ecclesiastes 1:3

What profit, what lasting value, what enduring advantage, hath a man of all his labor, the toil and exertion with which he fatigues himself, which he taketh under the sun? The author does not say that man's labor is useless, but that, in itself, it has no enduring, eternal value. While the sun runs his course with unfailing regularity, the doings of men seem altogether changeable and variable. The work of their hands is good, if done in the Lord's service, but the misery and the hardships connected with it set the imprint of vanity upon their entire life.