Epicurus's 4-Part Recipe for Happiness

And his long shadow through the ages

So the vital strength of his spirit won through, and he made his way far outside the flaming walls of the world and ranged over the measureless whole, both in mind and spirit.
 — Lucretius, in De Rerum Natura, Book I.72

Epicurus was the first real philosopher of happiness. There were philosophers before who made much of the good life — Socrates, Plato, Ar…