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>