On the Happy LifeAugustine

Augustine wrote On the Happy Life (De beata vita) in 386 at Cassiciacum, soon after his conversion, as one of a set of early dialogues. Over three days of conversation with friends and family, including his mother Monica, he asks what makes a life happy. Happiness, the company concludes, is to possess God, who is measure, truth, and wisdom; the soul that lacks God is in want. Want is misery. The dialogue joins the classical question of the good life to a Christian answer: blessedness depends on right relation to God. It stands beside Cicero's discussions of happiness and anticipates the fuller treatment of rest in God that closes the Confessions.