A question

What is the good life?

Not 'what feels good' but what kind of life is worth wanting — flourishing, virtue, love, or presence in the moment.

5 perspectives

  1. Aristotle

    Stagira, Athens

    Flourishing (eudaimonia) is activity of the soul in accordance with virtue

    “We are what we repeatedly do.” — Nicomachean Ethics (paraphrase of Book II; popularly attributed)
  2. Confucius

    State of Lu, China

    Do not impose on others what you do not wish for yourself

    “Do not do to others what you do not want done to yourself.” — Analects 15:24
  3. Laozi

    Chu, China (traditional)

    The softest things overcome the hardest

  4. Omar Khayyam

    Nishapur

    The present is the only possession: the rest is memory or guess

    “Be happy for this moment. This moment is your life.” — Rubaiyat (FitzGerald translation tradition; attributed in Persian sources)
  5. Seneca

    Cordoba → Rome

    We are not given a short life; we make it short

    “It is not that we have a short time to live, but that we waste a lot of it.” — On the Shortness of Life, ch. 1