Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics
H. Rackham, Ed.

（1） Now the first reason is that pleasure drives out pain; and excessive pain leads men to seek excessive pleasure, and bodily pleasure generally, as a restorative. And these restorative pleasures are intense, and therefore sought for, because they are seen in contrast with their opposite. （The view that pleasure is not a good at all is also due to these two facts, as has been said,¹ （a） that some pleasures are actions indicative of an evil nature, whether it be depraved from birth, like the nature of an animal,² or corrupted by habit, as is the case with evil men, and （b） that others are restoratives of a defective state,³ and to be in the natural state is better than to be in process of returning to it. But as a matter of fact the latter sort of pleasures accompany a process towards perfection, so that accidentally they are good.）