Great Quote

I came across this quote the other day. It's from Melville's Redburn. The two characters are sitting in the forecastle after a particularly bad voyage is over. I think the sentiment here expresses why we do a lot of things that seem to make little sense:

But in silent gratitude at the end of a voyage almost equally uncongenial to both of us, and so bitter to one, Harry and I sat on a chest in the forecastle. And now the ship that we had loathed grew lovely in our eyes, which lingered over every familiar old timber, for the scene of suffering is a scene of joy when the suffering is past and the silent reminiscence of hardships departed is sweeter than the presence of delight.