The good life includes suffering as well as contentment

"The good life includes suffering as well as contentment" is a tough sell when immediate pain is defined as bad and ready pleasure as good. Rugged self-control, exertion, endurance, these are painful things.

If you look only at present pain and pleasure, there is no satisfaction that endures, no lure for betterment. If you look to the soul and the future, the ache from exertion is self-satisfying, the inch forward today is enjoyable, those painful little brats are a pleasure. The term for such reward is long. Ain' nobody got time f'r that.