This document discusses how past hardships and difficulties can often appear pleasant when looked back upon after some time has passed. It provides several perspectives on why this may be the case from philosophers such as Aristotle, Sidgwick, Seneca, and passages from literature including Homer and Virgil. The key idea is that when events are in the past, we tend to recall the positive aspects like feelings of accomplishment rather than the original pain experienced at the time.

1. The Memories of Eumaeus
James Warren
Corpus Christi College and the Faculty of Classics

2. ναμιμνήσκονται γ ρ πολλ ἀ ὰ ῶν καὶ δυσχερῶν, καὶ τοιαῦθ’ ἕτερα ἐλπίζουσι,
καθ' ἑαυτοὺς ὄντες, μεθ’ ἑτέρων δ’ ὄντες ἐπιλανθάνονται.
For when they are alone they recollect many terrible things and they
expect more such besides; but when they are with others they forget
them.
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 9.4 1166b15–17

3. συνδιάγειν τε τοιο τος αυτ βούλεται· δέως ὁ ῦ ἑ ῷ ἡ γὰρ αὐτὸ ποιεῖ· τῶν τε
γὰρ πεπραγμένων ἐπιτερπεῖς αἱ μνῆμαι, καὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἐλπίδες
ἀγαθαί, αἱ τοιαῦται δ’ ἡδεῖαι. καὶ θεωρημάτων δ' εὐπορεῖ τῇ διανοίᾳ.
συναλγεῖ τε καὶ συνήδεται μάλισθ’ ἑαυτῷ πάντοτε γάρ ἐστι τὸ αὐτὸ
λυπηρόν τε καὶ ἡδύ, καὶ οὐκ ἄλλοτ’ ἄλλο· ἀμεταμέλητος γὰρ ὡς εἰπεῖν.
A person like this wants to spend time with himself, for he does this with pleasure.
And the memories of what he has done are enjoyable and his anticipations of what
is to come are good; and those sorts of memories and anticipations are pleasant.
And, what is more, he has plenty of things to contemplate in his mind. And he
shares his pleasures and his pains with himself in particular, for the same thing is
consistently painful or pleasant and is not pleasant at one time but not another.
For, in a word, he is without regret.
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics 9.4 1166a23–29

4. τ μ ν ο ν μνημονευτ δ α στ ὰ ὲ ὖ ὰ ἡ έ ἐ ὶν οὐ μόνον ὅσα ἐν τῷ παρόντι, ὅτε
παρῆν, ἡδέα ἦν, ἀλλ’ ἔνια καὶ οὐχ ἡδέα, ἂν ᾖ ὕστερον καλὸν καὶ ἀγαθὸν τὸ
μετὰ τοῦτο.
But things that are pleasant when remembered are not only those that
were pleasant when they were present. But sometimes also things that
were not pleasant [sc. when present are pleasant when remembered],
provided that what comes after this was fine and good.
Aristotle Rhetoric 1.11 1370a35–b3

5. a) It is now pleasant to recall the event because we recall the pleasant excitement
and intensity of the experience rather than the pain and struggle.
b) It is now pleasant to recall the event because, although painful at the time, it is
now over. When we recall the event our attention is drawn to its past-ness and
that is a pleasant thought.
c) It is now pleasant to recall the event because, although it painful at the time,
when we recall the event our attention is drawn to our comparatively positive
state now and that is a pleasant thought.
d) It is now pleasant to recall the event because, although painful at the time, it
had beneficial consequences which are pleasant.
e) It is now pleasant to recall the event because, although painful at the time, in
retrospect we see the event itself—not just its consequences—as something
positive and beneficial.

6. To this case it seems due that past hardships, toils, and anxieties often
appear pleasurable when we look back upon them, after some interval; for
the excitement, the heightened sense of life that accompanies the painful
struggle, would have been pleasurable if taken by itself; and it is that that
we recall rather than the pain.
Henry Sidgwick, The Methods of Ethics (7th edn. 1907) p. 144.

7. deinde quod acerbum fuit ferre, tulisse iucundum est: naturale est mali sui
fine gaudere.
Eventually, what was bitter to undergo is pleasant to have undergone: it is
natural to take pleasure at the ending of one’s harm.
Seneca, Moral Letters 78.14

8. λλ’ δ τοι ἀ ἡ ύ σωθέντα μεμνῆσθαι πόνων.
Pleasant it is when rescued to remember the toils (ponoi).
Euripides’ Andromeda (fr. 133 Nauck2)

9. κ δεσιν ή ἀλλήλων τερπώμεθα λευγαλέοισι,
μνωομένω· μετὰ γάρ τε καὶ ἄλγεσι τέρπεται ἀνήρ,
ὅς τις δὴ μάλα πολλὰ πάθῃ καὶ πόλλ’ ἐπαληθῇ
Let us two cheer one another with recollections of our wretched sorrows.
For a man who has undergone many sufferings and has wandered far is
cheered even by his pains.
Homer Odyssey 15.399–401

10. forsan et haec olim meminisse iuvabit.
Perhaps there will be a time when it will be pleasant to recall even this.
Virgil Aeneid 1.203