History ch 13

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 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