Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBut I must explain to you how all this mistaken\r\nidea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give\r\nyou a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings\r\nof the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human\r\nhappiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because\r\nit is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue\r\npleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBut who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a\r\npleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain\r\nthat produces no resultant pleasure?\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nOn the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike\r\nmen who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the\r\nmoment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and\r\ntrouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who\r\nfail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying\r\nthrough shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nIn a free hour, when our power of choice is untrammelled and when\r\nnothing prevents our being able to do what we like best, every pleasure\r\nis to be welcomed and every pain avoided.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nBut in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the\r\nobligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have\r\nto be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always\r\nholds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects\r\npleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains\r\nto avoid worse pains.\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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