@ZachWeinersmith I'd say that feeling pain has a purpose. It goes without saying that this doesn't at all mean that all pain ever caused is useful. But there's a threshold at which minimizing pain means robbing someone, including yourself, of the chance to gain wisdom, experience, insight. Personal virtues meanwhile can and should shift, just like any self-image. The best one can hope for is to gain understanding, insight into as many people and situations as possible, to ideally become able to adapt to anything, anywhere, anytime and be the best version of a person you can be in any given context. Most of us won't get into a situation where we either can act virtuous or choose to survive, but when we do, chances are we are not in a state of mind that allows for the decision to be entirely rational.