Pleasure and Pain

Lucretius and the Epicureans believe in the thought of minimizing harm in order to maximize happiness. I see this as their version of the Christian's thought of turn to the other cheek. However, Epicureans give an answer to each potential pain to lighten the crushing blow that potential pain may cause. For example, on page 55 section 3 the passage roughly states if you really like something just state the simplicity of it so when it is gone you will not be as upset. I have to disagree with the Epicureans philosophy about pleasure and pain. I believe that each human is different, and that some people can not mentally think like that to lighten up the pain. Also I do believe that sometimes you have to experience the worst times to truly maximize the good times that you will have. If you only have good or great experiences all the time how can one truly know that they are pleasurable experiences if it is an everyday thing. I feel like that people would get bored of that lifestyle very quickly. A good modern day example is lottery winners. Everyone wants to win the lottery, but when given that lifestyle they lose everything. They lose friends, family, and sometimes their life. So for someone to honestly been happy you must have some pretty rough times to appreciate the good times.