Augustine rejects the Epicurean equation of happiness with pleasure. Instead, he argues that the happy life is one where the soul is in proper order—what he calls “the perfect balance of the soul.” When reason rules over appetite, and when reason itself is turned toward unchanging Truth, then a person is happy.
De Beata Vita was composed at a villa in Cassiciacum, where Augustine retired to prepare for his baptism. Unlike his later, more strictly theological works, this dialogue is a bridge between (influenced by Cicero and the Stoics) and Christian doctrine . augustine on the happy life pdf