IN all vice, pleasure being presented with a bait, draws sensual minds to the hook of perdition.
EPICTETUS. FRAGMENTS. 107.
REPENTANCE, is an inward and self-reprehension for the neglect or omission of somewhat that was profitable. Now whatsoever is good, is also profitable, and it is the part of an honest virtuous man to set by it, and to make reckoning of it accordingly. But never did any honest virtuous man repent of the neglect or omission of any carnal pleasure: no carnal pleasure then is either good or profitable.
MARCUS AURELIUS. MEDITATIONS. Book viii. 9.
IT is the character of a wise man to resist pleasure, and of a fool to be enslaved by it.
EPICTETUS. FRAGMENTS. 106.
This is challenging reading. My immediate response is, "Who would reject pleasure? It is a good thing!" The key to this is to understand that it is the PURSUIT of pleasure, not pleasure itself, that causes the fall into vice. If pleasure is a by-product of a virtuous life, well and good. But it is the Virtuous Life that must be pursued, and not for pleasure's sake, because sometimes I must make painful choices when pursuing virtue.
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