After an introduction including an exploration of the term “happiness” and contemporary ideas about the same, Happiness transitions into eighteen chapters presenting what the ancient Greeks thought and said about happiness. Here’s a bit of what they had to say . . .

In Their Own Words

The Greeks Speak about Happiness

(the source for the quote is in italics )

Plotinus Being happy is the supreme end to which all nature aspires.

Aristotle Happiness is the goal of human life.

Julian (the Roman emperor) The aim and end of . . . every philosophy is to be happy.

Epicurus Let no one put off studying philosophy when he is young, nor become weary of it when he is old, for no age is too early or too late for the health of the soul. To suggest that the time for studying philosophy has not yet come or that it is long gone is like saying that it is too early or too late for happiness. . . . We must practice those things that produce happiness since if happiness is present, we possess everything, and if it is not, we do everything to acquire it.

Archytas What goods are naturally desired for themselves and not for anything else? Evidently they include happiness since happiness is the end for which we seek everything else, while we seek happiness only for itself and not for anything else.

Eusebius of Caesarea Aristippus was a companion of Socrates and the founder of the so-called Cyrenaic school. . . . His life was entirely luxurious, and he was fond of pleasure. . . . He used to say that the essence of happiness is found in pleasures.

Epicurus (Letter to Menoeceus) We say that pleasure is the beginning point and goal of living happily. We recognize that pleasure is our first good. . . . When we say that pleasure is the beginning point and goal of life, we do not mean the pleasures of decadent men or the pleasures of sensuality, as some ignorant persons believe, or those who do not agree with us, or those who have willfully misrepresented our position. Rather, by pleasure we mean the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the soul.

Aristotle Since all knowledge and moral choice aims at good of one kind or another, . . . the question is this : what is the highest good that action can achieve? As for its name, nearly everyone is agreed—for both the crowd of men and the few who are educated and refined call it happiness, and they assume that “living well” and “doing well” is the same thing as “being happy.” But they argue about what happiness is. The account given by the many is not the same as that given by the wise. Most people associate happiness with obvious things that can be seen and felt, such as pleasure or wealth or honor. . . . But quite often the same man declares happiness one thing and then another—health when he is sick and wealth when he is poor.

Aristotle To call happiness the highest good is perhaps to speak in terms of clichés. Therefore, what we need is a clearer account of what, exactly, happiness is. It is possible we will be able to do this when we have ascertained man’s proper function. . . .

    What can this function possibly be? Can it be living itself? No, life and the act of living is clearly something that men have in common with plants—and what we are seeking is something that mankind alone does. Let us therefore eliminate the life-act of nutrition and growth. The next possibility is sense perception, that is, some form of perceptive living or life. But this form of living also seems to be something common to horses, oxen, and every other animal. There remains, then, a kind of active or practical life that follows reason or some rational principle. . . .

    Therefore, man’s proper function or work is an activity of the soul in accordance with reason—at the very least not independent of reason. . . . And the function of an excellent man is to perform these activities well and rightly. . . . The human good, then, is the activity of the soul that accords with virtue. And if there happens to be more than one human virtue, then it is that activity which accords with the best and most complete or perfect virtue.

Diogenes of Sinope I came, Father, to Athens, and learning that Socrates’ associate was teaching about happiness, I went to him. And he happened to be speaking about the paths that lead to happiness. He declared that there are two and not many paths—and that one is a shortcut and the other is long. . . . The one is short, steep, and troublesome; the other is long, smooth, and easy. . . . While the others, who were struck with fear at the troublesome and steep nature of the one path, called on him to lead them along the long and smooth one, I, superior to the hardships, chose the steep and troublesome path—for the man speeding on to happiness must go on even if it is through fire and sword.

Diogenes Laertius The Stoics hold that virtue is sufficient in itself to ensure happiness. . . . Happiness consists in virtue, which is the state of the soul that tends to make the whole of life harmonious.

The above is the just the beginning. Read Happiness to find out what else the Greeks thought and said.