Ben Sira 16:4

4 For through one intelligent person a city can be filled with people, but through a clan of outlaws it becomes desolate.

Ben Sira 16:4 In-Context

2 If they multiply, do not rejoice in them, unless the fear of the Lord is in them.

3 Do not trust in their survival, or rely on their numbers; for one can be better than a thousand, and to die childless is better than to have ungodly children.

4 For through one intelligent person a city can be filled with people, but through a clan of outlaws it becomes desolate.

5 Many such things my eye has seen, and my ear has heard things more striking than these.

6 In an assembly of sinners a fire is kindled, and in a disobedient nation wrath blazes up.