Upgrading Murphy's Law

Pain is provided, pleasure is permitted

A rule of strategy and life is that pain is provided and pleasure is permitted. This means we will always find a larger quantity of difficulty than comfort, of hardship than fun. Malady comes by default. Smiles take effort.

I find this thought much more illuminating than Murphy’s Law. Murphy tell us generally that “anything that can go wrong will go wrong.” Translation: bad things happen. The thing is, good things happen too. What matters is the relationship between good and bad things, the crude proportion, the balance and weight of each, and how we prepare ourselves mentally for both.