Gregory the Great, on Eccl 3:19

“Therefore the death of man, and of beasts is one, and the condition of them both is equal: as man dieth, so they also die: all things breathe alike, and man hath nothing more than beast: all things are subject to vanity.”

“In describing the pleasures of the flesh, he puts all cares out of his mind and states that it is good to eat and drink. Later, he finds fault with this view from the standpoint of reason and says it is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting. Likewise, from purely carnal considerations he advises a young man to find his pleasure in his youth, and later, modifying this statement, he blames youth and its pleasures as fleeting. So, too, when he speaks from the minds of the infirm, our Preacher voices an opinion based on suspicion. "For the lot of man and of beast," he says, "is one lot; the one dies as well as the other. Both have the same life breath, and man has no advantage over the beast." Later, however, he presents conclusions drawn from reason and says, "What has the wise man more than the fool? and what the poor man, but to go where there is life?" So, after he says, "Man has no advantage over the beast," he again specifies that the wise person has an advantage not only over the beast but also over the foolish person, namely, his ability to go "where there is life."”

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