The Sting of Pleasure

"But what shall I say of bodily pleasures, whose pursuit is full of anxiety, whose satisfaction is full of regret? What diseases, what unbearable pains they are wont to bring back to the bodies of those who enjoy them, as if a kind of harvest of wickedness! What delight there is in their motion, I do not know. But that the outcomes of pleasures are sad, anyone who is willing to recall his own lusts will understand.

"If these can make people blessed, there is no reason why even cattle should not be called blessed, since their whole aim hurries toward filling up the body's emptiness. The pleasantness of a wife and children would indeed be most honorable; but it has been said, all too truly to nature, that some man found his children to be his tormentors. How biting any such condition may be, there is no need to warn you, who have neither experienced it otherwise nor are now anxious about it. In this I approve the opinion of my Euripides, who said that the man without children is happy in his misfortune."

'Then, what shall I say of the pleasures of the body? The lust thereof is full of uneasiness; the sating, of repentance. What sicknesses, what intolerable pains, are they wont to bring on the bodies of those who enjoy them—the fruits of iniquity, as it were! Now, what sweetness the stimulus of pleasure may have I do not know. But that the issues of pleasure are painful everyone may understand who chooses to recall the memory of his own fleshly lusts. Nay, if these can make happiness, there is no reason why the beasts also should not be happy, since all their efforts are eagerly set upon satisfying the bodily wants. I know, indeed, that the sweetness of wife and children should be right comely, yet only too true to nature is what was said of one—that he found in his sons his tormentors. And how galling such a contingency would be, I must needs put thee in mind, since thou hast never in any wise suffered such experiences, nor art thou now under any uneasiness. In such a case, I agree with my servant Euripides, who said that a man without children was fortunate in his misfortune.'^H