How To Sell Anything

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. 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.