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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
