happy life

is not that which conforms to pleasure, but that which conforms to Nature.

From: “when he has learned that the happy life is not that which conforms to pleasure, but that which conforms to Nature, when he has fallen deeply in love with virtue as man's sole good and has avoided baseness as man's sole evil”

as Sextius shows it is on high but accessible — grand without making you despair of reaching it.

Recast in definition form from: “For this is another remarkable quality that Sextius possesses: he will show you the grandeur of the happy life and yet will not make you despair of attaining it; you will understand that it is on high, but that it is accessible to him who has the will to seek it.”

is like a profitable trade or a good farm: not free of losses, but abounding in gains.

Recast in definition form from: “For even as trading is said to be lucrative, and farming advantageous, not because the one never meets with any loss, nor the other with any damage from the inclemency of the weather, but because they succeed in general; so life may be properly called happy, not from its being entirely made up of good things, but because it abounds …”

does not possess its form as a part but has passed entirely into it: it is its form.

Recast in definition form from: “… life that does not possess its form as a part …”

admits of no degrees: he whom you call less happy is not happy, for the word admits of no diminution.

Recast in definition form from: “He whom you maintain to be "less happy" is not happy; the word admits of no diminution.”

is not made happier by being longer; round out your life before death comes and time will mean nothing to you.

Recast in definition form from: “remembering continually what a noble thing it is to round out your life before death comes, and then await in peace the remaining portion of your time, claiming nothing for yourself, since you are in possession of the happy life; for such a life is not made happier for being longer.”

is one in which everything is done in harmony between the daimon inside each of us and the will of the one who governs the universe.

Recast in definition form from: “… which everything is done " in accordance with the harmony …”

cannot be lived more happily without being lived more rightly: virtue cannot be strained tighter, and neither can the life that depends on it.

Recast in definition form from: “In order to live more happily, he must live more rightly; if he cannot do that, then he cannot live more happily either. Virtue cannot be strained tighter, and therefore neither can the happy life, which depends on virtue.”

happy life, n.Definitions

happy life