Philosophy

How to Find Happiness: An Ancient Guide to the Good Life

    Edited and translated by
  • Katharina Volk

Does happiness come from the pursuit of pleasure or moral virtue? A vivid new translation of Cicero鈥檚 exploration of a timeless question

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Published:
Feb 24, 2026
2026
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鈥淥f course, we all want to be happy.鈥 So wrote the Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. He and his fellow Greek and Roman philosophers agreed that the secret to happiness鈥攐r what they called the 鈥済ood life鈥濃攊s pursuing the 鈥済reatest good.鈥 The only problem is that they couldn鈥檛 agree on what the greatest good is. Cicero addressed this dilemma by composing a set of dialogues, On the Greatest Good and Evil (De finibus bonorum et malorum), in which he pitted advocates of different philosophical approaches to happiness against one another. Notably, these include the Epicureans (who believe that the greatest good is pleasure) and the Stoics (according to whom it is moral virtue). Rather than choosing sides, Cicero considers the pros and cons of the different philosophies, ultimately leaving it to his readers to make up their own minds. In How to Find Happiness, Katharina Volk offers a vivid new translation of selections from Cicero鈥檚 work, complete with an introduction and the original Latin text on facing pages. The result is a lively and engaging debate that invites each of us to discover our own path to happiness.