Ecclesiastes 7:10

"Do not say, 'Why is it that the former days were better than these?' For it is not from wisdom that you ask about this."Do not say" -Solomon is relentless! "verse 10 is even more crushing, as befits an answer to nostalgia, which is an enervating and self-indulgent mood. To sigh for 'the good old days' is…doubly unrealistic:. substitute not only for action but for proper thought, since it almost invariably overlooks the evils that took. different form or vexed. different section of society in other times. The clear-eyed Qoheleth is the last person to be impressed by this golden haze around the past: he has already declared that one age is very much like another (Ecclesiastes 1:9) " (Kidner p. 67)

"it is not from wisdom that you ask about this" -we need to talk more sensibly than longing for the supposed good old days. Living in the past, pinning for some golden era in the past or our past, is also living like. fool. Longing for the past and dissatisfaction with the present is another manifestation of impatience and pride. "For one thing, to believe that the present is worse than the past shows. complete ignorance of history" (Longman p. 189). The wise man interprets the present and the past in the light of wisdom.