Ambrose of Milan, on Eccl 4:1

“I turned myself to other things, and I saw the oppressions that are done under the sun, and the tears of the innocent, and they had no comforter; and they were not able to resist their violence, being destitute of help from any.”

“We desire each day to know what is new, and what is knowledge itself but our daily sorrow and abasement? All things that are have already been, and "nothing is new under the sun," but "all is vanity. Therefore I hated the whole of this life," said Ecclesiastes. He who hated his life certainly commended death. And so he praised the dead rather than the living and judged him happy that did not come into this life nor take up this vain toil. "My heart took a circuit to know the joy of the impious man and to examine carefully and to seek wisdom and a mode of calculating and to know joy through the impious man and trouble and disquietude, and I find that it is bitterer than death"—not because death is bitter, but because it is bitter for the impious one. And yet life is bitterer than death. For it is a greater burden to live for sin than to die in sin, because the impious person increases his sin as long as he lives, but if he dies, he ceases to sin.”

Imported from an open dataset — not yet checked against the printed edition.