1
of
1
How to Find Happiness
An Ancient Guide to the Good Life
Brief Description
Does happiness come from the pursuit of pleasure or moral virtue? A vivid new translation of Cicero's exploration of a timeless question. 'Of course, we all want to be happy.' So wrote the Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. He and his fellow Greek...
Read More
Format: Hardback
$3499
Unit price
/
Unavailable
AVAILABLE WITH SUPPLIER
Ships from our Auckland warehouse within 4-6 weeks
Found a better price? Request a price match
How to Find Happiness
$3499
Unit price
/
Unavailable
Latest News
Vanya Insull (aka VJ Cooks) visits Book Hero
We were lucky to have a visit from popular foodie, home cook and baker Vanya...
Is the newest Jack Reacher one of the best?
Our favourite crime solving, bad guy beating nomad is back and Lizzy and Edd were...
Heartstopper's Alice Oseman visits Book Hero
We were so excited to have Alice come to visit Hero HQ, as huge fans...
Shirl and Lizzy Review The Starving Bride
Catherine Chidgey does it again with another incredible novel that will have people talking for...
New Releases to add to your TBR this week (19th October)
One of my favourite sci-fi authors has a new book that I cannot wait to...
See moreDoes happiness come from the pursuit of pleasure or moral virtue? A vivid new translation of Cicero's exploration of a timeless question
Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and
still learning, it may not be perfect - your
feedback is welcome!
Description
Does happiness come from the pursuit of pleasure or moral virtue? A vivid new translation of Cicero's exploration of a timeless question.
'Of course, we all want to be happy.' So wrote the Roman statesman, orator, and philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero. He and his fellow Greek and Roman philosophers agreed that the secret to happinessβor what they called the 'good life'βis pursuing the "greatest good." The only problem is that they couldn't 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's 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.
Series: Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers
View all-
How to Be Healthy
The second-century Greek physician Galen, the most famous doctor in antiquity after Hippocrates, is a central figure in Western medicine. A talented doctor, surgeon, writer, philosopher, teacher, pharmacologist, and inventor, Galen attended the court of Marcus Aurelius, living through outbreaks of plague (likely smallpox) that devastated the Roman Empire. He also served as a physician for professional gladiators, boasting that...Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Care about Animals
An entertaining and enlightening anthology of classical Greek and Roman writings on animals - and our vital relationships with them. How to Care about Animals is a fascinating menagerie of passages from classical literature about animals and the lives we share with them. Drawing on ancient writers from Aesop to Ovid, classicist and farmer M. D. Usher has gathered a...Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Do the Right Thing
There are times when we've all felt that we haven't been treated as we deserveβthat we've been misjudged, shortchanged, or given a raw deal. And, at one time or another, other people have probably felt that we've treated them just as unfairly. How to Do the Right Thing draws on the principles of ancient Stoicism as articulated by the Roman...Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Flourish
Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics is one of the greatest guides to human flourishing ever written, but its length and style have left many readers languishing. How to Flourish is a carefully abridged version of the entire work in a highly readable and colloquial new translation by Susan Sauve Meyer that makes Aristotle's timeless insights about how to lead a good life...Hardback$5300Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 2-3 weeks -
How to Focus
Distraction isn't a new problem. We're also not the first to complain about how hard it is to concentrate. Early Christian monks beat us to it. They had given up everything to focus on God, yet they still struggled to keep the demons of distraction at bay. But rather than surrender to the meandering of their minds, they developed powerful...Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Stop a Conspiracy
In 63 BC, frustrated by his failure to be elected leader of the Roman Republic, the aristocrat Catiline tried to topple its elected government. Backed by corrupt elites and poor, alienated Romans, he fled Rome while his associates plotted to burn the city and murder its leading politicians. The attempted coup culminated with the unmasking of the conspirators in the...Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Win an Argument
Timeless techniques of effective public speaking from ancient Rome's greatest orator All of us are faced countless times with the challenge of persuading others, whether we're trying to win a trivial argument with a friend or convince our coworkers about an important decision. Instead of relying on untrained instinctβand often floundering or failing as a resultβwe'd win more arguments if...Hardback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Be a Farmer
Whether you farm or garden, live in the country or long to move there, or simply enjoy an occasional rural retreat, you will be delighted by this cornucopia of writings about living and working on the land, harvested from the fertile fields of ancient Greek and Roman literature. An inspiring antidote to the digital age, How to Be a Farmer...Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Be Queer
An irresistible anthology of ancient Greek writings that explore queer desire and love 'Eros, limb-loosening, whirls me about again, that bittersweet, implacable creature.' Sappho The idea of sexual fluidity may seem new, but it is at least as old as the ancient Greeks, who wrote about queer experiences with remarkable frankness, wit, and insight. How to Be Queer is an...Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Be a Bad Emperor
What would Caligula do? What the worst Roman emperors can teach us about how not to lead If recent history has taught us anything, it's that sometimes the best guide to leadership is the negative example. But that insight is hardly new. Nearly 2,000 years ago, Suetonius wrote Lives of the Caesars, perhaps the greatest negative leadership book of all...Hardback$4499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Get Over a Breakup
A modern translation of the ancient Roman poet Ovid's Remedies for Loveβa witty and irreverent work about how to fall out of love. Breakups are the worst. On one scale devised by psychiatrists, only a spouse's death was ranked as more stressful than a marital split. Is there any treatment for a breakup? The ancient Roman poet Ovid thought so....Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Give
To give and receive well may be the most human thing you can do, but it is also the closest you can come to divinity. So argues the great Roman Stoic thinker Seneca (c. 4 BCEβ65 CE) in his longest and most searching moral treatise, On Benefits (De Beneficiis). James Romm's splendid new translation of essential selections from this work...Hardback$5499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9780691263397
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Format: Hardback
Date Published: 24 February 2026
Country: United States
Imprint: Princeton University Press
Contributors:
- Edited and translated by Katharina Volk
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 114.0mm
Height: 171.0mm
Weight: 300g
Pages: 256
About the Author
Marcus Tullius Cicero (10643 BCE) was a Roman statesman, orator, and writer who was active during the turbulent times of the fall of the Roman Republic. Famous for his rhetorical skills and his superb Latin style, he left behind a large body of writings in many genres, including highly influential philosophical works.
Katharina Volk is professor of classics at Columbia University and the author of The Roman Republic of Letters (Princeton), among other books.
Also by Marcus Tullius Cicero
View all-
How to Win an Argument
Timeless techniques of effective public speaking from ancient Rome's greatest orator All of us are faced countless times with the challenge of persuading others, whether we're trying to win a trivial argument with a friend or convince our coworkers about an important decision. Instead of relying on untrained instinctβand often floundering or failing as a resultβwe'd win more arguments if...Hardback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Be a Friend
A splendid new translation of one of the greatest books on friendship ever written. In a world where social media, online relationships, and relentless self-absorption threaten the very idea of deep and lasting friendships, the search for true friends is more important than ever. In this short book, one of the greatest ever written on the subject, the famous Roman...Hardback$4499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Grieve
An engaging new translation of a timeless masterpiece about coping with the death of a loved one. In 45 BCE, the Roman statesman Cicero fell to pieces when his beloved daughter, Tullia, died from complications of childbirth. But from the depths of despair, Cicero fought his way back. In an effort to cope with his loss, he wrote a consolation...Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Grow Old
Worried that old age will inevitably mean losing your libido, your health, and possibly your marbles too? Well, Cicero has some good news for you. In How to Grow Old, the great Roman orator and statesman eloquently describes how you can make the second half of life the best part of all - and why you might discover that reading...Hardback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Tell a Joke
Can jokes win a hostile room, a hopeless argument, or even an election? You bet they can, according to Cicero, and he knew what he was talking about. One of Rome's greatest politicians, speakers, and lawyers, Cicero was also reputedly one of antiquity's funniest people. After he was elected commander-in-chief and head of state, his enemies even started calling him...Hardback$3499Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Think about God
A vivid and accessible new translation of Cicero's influential writings on the Stoic idea of the divine Most ancient Romans were deeply religious and their world was overflowing with gods - from Jupiter, Minerva, and Mars to countless local divinities, household gods, and ancestral spirits. One of the most influential Roman perspectives on religion came from a nonreligious belief system...Hardback$3999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
How to Run a Country
Timeless political wisdom from ancient history's greatest statesman Marcus Cicero, Rome's greatest statesman and orator, was elected to the Roman Republic's highest office at a time when his beloved country was threatened by power-hungry politicians, dire economic troubles, foreign turmoil, and political parties that refused to work together. Sound familiar? Cicero's letters, speeches, and other writings are filled with timeless...Hardback$2999Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks -
Cicero
Of all the philosophical and rhetorical treatises of Cicero, his three books On the Orator (de Oratore) represent perhaps the most polished and appealing. Here is Rome's consummate orator and composer of forensic and political speeches, at the height of his powers, giving the considered results of his personal experience. This is not the dry theorising and bickering of different...Paperback$18800Unit price /UnavailableAvailableShips in 4-6 weeks
More from Philosophy & Psychology
View all-
Atomic Habits
Atomic Habits by James Clear is a transformative guide that demonstrates how tiny, incremental changes in behaviour can fundamentally reshape your life. Rather than urging sweeping transformations, Clear advocates for the compound effect of hundreds of small decisions. Whether itβs performing two push-ups a day, waking up five minutes earlier, or making a brief, focused phone call, these minuscule adjustments,...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
New ReleaseHow Lucky Am I
The first full book featuring social media sensation Mr. Skelly, with over 5 million global followers, a skeleton who teaches us that life is a gift to be treasured, reminding us how lucky we all are to live in this present moment. For readers of The Book of Gifts and The Little Frogβs Guide to Self Care. In this poignant,...Hardback$4299Elsewhere:$5500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Creative Act
Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day and then ages out. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed...Hardback$4400Elsewhere:$5500Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Winner's Formula
The Neuroscience of Peak Performance, Success, and Happiness Why do some people win all the time? Why do others languish? From Olympians to Formula 1 drivers, addicts to billionaires, cognitive neuroscientist Dr Kerry Spackman has spent decades working to help people understand how to succeed. In The Winner's Formula, Kerry explains what goes on in your brain when you are...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Strangers
The must-read memoir of the end of a marriage and the start of a personal revolution, based on the iconic Modern Love essay in the New York Times and perfect for fans of Glennon Doyle. "A beautifully written eulogy for the loss of a relationship" β Joyce Carol Oates How do we go on when a loved one betrays us?...Paperback$3299Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
23% off1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
In the drab and oppressive world of 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell introduces us to Winston Smith, a man haunted by the omnipresent surveillance and control exercised by the Party and its enigmatic leader, Big Brother. Winston works diligently at the Ministry of Truth, where his job is to alter historical records to fit the ever-changing narrative dictated by the...Paperback$1000Usually:$1299Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Lessons on Living
Bestselling author Nigel Latta's simple psychological toolkit for life's ups and downs. Over thirty years working as a clinical psychologist, Nigel Latta assembled a personal toolkit based on three simple principles. These principles helped him to be more resilient, joyful, and attuned to what matters most. The same principles have helped him through some difficult times as well, such as...Paperback$2900Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
21% offAroha
Aroha by Dr Hinemoa Elder is an enlightening exploration of timeless Maori wisdom, intricately woven into a contemporary context. This top-selling non-fiction title from New Zealand in 2021 introduces readers to 52 traditional Maori proverbs, known as whakataukΔ«, each offering a profound lesson for every week of the year. Dr Elder, a respected Maori psychiatrist, delves into these powerful sayings...Hardback$1900Elsewhere:$3000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Eat Your Ice Cream
The New York Times bestseller that presents a bold new vision for living well and ageing with purpose from a world-renowned health expert THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From a leading doctor and world-renowned health expert, the simple, uplifting and practical guide to cutting through the wellness noise, living well and ageing with purpose. βEssential reading for anyone who...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$4000Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
Better Never Stops
The Art and Science of Continuous Improvement From delinquent to doctor, Paul Wood knows first-hand how far we can take our lives if we address what holds us back. At the age of 18, Wood was sent to New Zealand's toughest prison. Almost 11 years later, in 2006, he walked out a free man, escaping his past and becoming a...Paperback$2700Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The Courage to be Disliked
The Courage to be Disliked by Ichiro Kishimi and Fumitake Koga presents an enlightening and thought-provoking dialogue between a philosopher and a young man disillusioned with life. In a series of conversations, the philosopher introduces the principles of Alfred Adler's psychology, advocating for personal empowerment and mental freedom. Through this engaging dialogue, the young man learns to confront the societal...Paperback$2500Elsewhere:$2999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today -
The DOSE Effect
The DOSE Effect offers small habits to boost your brain chemistry. "This book will help you find more motivation, create deeper connections, energise your body, and destress your mind," says Jay Shetty, author of Think Like a Monk. Life can feel overwhelming, but it doesnβt have to be. Todayβs fast-paced world leaves many of us struggling with extreme emotional highs...Paperback$3199Elsewhere:$3999Unit price /UnavailableIn StockShips today
Why buy from us?
Book Hero is not a chain store or big box retailer. We're an independent 100% NZ-owned business on a mission to help more Kiwis rediscover a love of books and reading!
Service & Delivery
Our warehouse in Auckland holds over 100,000 books, toys, board games and puzzles in-stock so you're not waiting for your order to arrive from overseas.
Auckland Bookstore
We're primarily an online store, but for your convenience you can pick up your order for free from our bookstore, which is right next door to our warehouse in Hobsonville.
Our Gifting Service
Books make wonderful thoughtful gifts and we're here to help with gift-wrapping and cards. We can even send your gift directly to your loved one.
