The Ecosystem Within Us

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. Sed ut per­spi­cia­tis unde omnis iste natus error sit volup­ta­tem accu­san­tium dolo­re­mque lau­dan­tium, totam rem ape­riam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inven­to­re veri­ta­tis et quasi archi­tec­to beatae vitae dic­ta sunt expli­ca­bo. Nemo enim ipsam volup­ta­tem quia volup­tas sit asper­na­tur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia con­se­qu­un­tur magni dolo­res eos qui ratio­ne volup­ta­tem sequi nesciunt.

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? Neque por­ro quisqu­am est, qui dolo­rem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, con­sec­te­tur, adi­pi­sci velit, sed quia non numqu­am eius modi tem­po­ra inci­dunt ut labo­re et dolo­re magnam ali­qu­am quaerat volup­ta­tem. Ut enim ad mini­ma veniam, quis nostrum exer­ci­ta­tio­nem ullam cor­po­ris susci­pit labo­rio­sam, nisi ut ali­qu­id ex ea com­mo­di con­se­qu­atur. 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.