Ecclesiastes 6:9

Better is the sight of the eyes than the wandering of the desire Literally, than the wandering of the soul. The truth is substantially that embodied in the fable of "the dog and his shadow" and in proverbs like "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." To enjoy what we actually see, i.e.present opportunities, however limited, is better than the cravings of a limitless desire, "wandering" at will through all the region of possibilities. In that wandering, there is once more the feeding upon wind. Perhaps, however, that sentence is passed with an intentional ambiguity, characteristic of the writer (see note on Ecclesiastes 6:9), upon the actual present enjoyment, as well as on the unsatisfied desire, or upon the bare fact that the former with its lower aims is better than the latter with its higher ones.