But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing of  a 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 <b>loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but</b> occasionally <b>circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great</b> pleasure. <b>To take a trivial example, which of us ever</b> undertakes <b>laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who</b> has any right to <b>find fault</b> with a man who <b>chooses to enjoy a pleasure</b> that has no annoying consequences, or <b>one</b> who <b>avoids a pain</b> that <b>produces no</b> resultant pleasure?
<p>[33] 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 <b>blinded by desire, that they cannot foresee</b> the pain and trouble that are bound to ensue; and equal <b>blame belongs to those who fail in their duty through weakness of will, which is the same as saying through shrinking from toil</b>  and pain. These cases are perfectly simple and easy to distinguish. In a  free hour, when our power of choice is untrammeled 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.</p>