Charles Ellicott Commentary Ecclesiastes 2:9-11

"So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them; I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor; and this was my portion from all my labor. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labor that I had labored to do; and, behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind, and there was no profit under the sun." — Ecclesiastes 2:9-11 (ASV)

Kohéleth carried out his plan of tempering his enjoyment with discretion, but while he took his fill of the pleasure that came his way, he found in it no lasting profit. He goes on in the following paragraph to complain that the wisdom and other advantages he possessed in his search for happiness made his failure all the more disheartening.