How to Live: An Ancient Guide to the Happy Life

Summary

A vivid new translation in which the Stoic philosopher argues that virtue is the only path to contentment

Why are so many people unhappy when happiness can be attained by anyone who simply lives virtuously? That question prompted Seneca, the great Stoic philosopher of the early Roman Empire, to write On the Happy Life, and he continued to seek answers in his Moral Epistles. In How to Live, Seneca biographer and translator James Romm presents vivid new versions of passages from both works, distilling Seneca’s passionate and inspiring argument for a path to perfect contentment, no matter what befalls us.

As a Stoic, Seneca believed that only ethical virtue leads to happiness; all other goals, including wealth and success, are neutral in their effects—or, if they torment us with what we haven’t achieved, sources of unhappiness. For role models, Seneca looks to Socrates, who embodied virtue and reason, and to a hypothetical sage who is always in tune with the divine mind that governs the cosmos. Extolling these paragons with nearly messianic fervor, Seneca urges us to imitate their example.

Featuring an inviting introduction and the original Latin on facing pages, How to Live captures the persuasive power of Seneca’s argument that the universe wants us to be virtuous—and happy.