sddhsrtyvserysvvasretaerfaBut 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
