Cicero’s Tusculan Disputations

The Tusculan Disputations are five books of philosophy Cicero wrote in 45 BC, in the months after his beloved daughter Tullia died. Set as conversations at his villa near Tusculum, they ask what a good person needs in order to be happy. Cicero argues in turn that death is no evil, that pain can be borne, that grief and the other passions can be mastered, and that virtue by itself is enough for a happy life. Drawing on Stoic and Platonic sources, he writes not as a system builder but as a Roman statesman trying to console himself and his readers. This free PDF and EPUB presents the complete English translation of a cornerstone of Western moral thought.