But
I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure
and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of
the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of
the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects,
dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because
those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter
consequences that are extremely painful.
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?
But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a
pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain
that produces no resultant pleasure?
On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike
men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the
moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and
trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who
fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying
through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple
and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is
untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like
best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided.
But in certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the
obligations of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to
be repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always
holds in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects
pleasures to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to
avoid worse pains. But I must explain to you how all this mistaken
idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give
you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings
of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human
happiness.
No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is
pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure
rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. 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? But who has any
right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has
no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no
resultant pleasure?
On the other hand, we denounce with righteous indignation and dislike
men who are so beguiled and demoralized by the charms of pleasure of the
moment, so blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee the pain and
trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal blame belongs to those who
fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying
through shrinking from toil and pain. These cases are perfectly simple
and easy to distinguish. In a free hour, when our power of choice is
untrammelled and when nothing prevents our being able to do what we like
best, every pleasure is to be welcomed and every pain avoided. But in
certain circumstances and owing to the claims of duty or the obligations
of business it will frequently occur that pleasures have to be
repudiated and annoyances accepted. The wise man therefore always holds
in these matters to this principle of selection: he rejects pleasures
to secure other greater pleasures, or else he endures pains to avoid
worse pains. But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of
denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will
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