The philosophy of the art of living describes an unfinished project aimed at merging two types of ethics: ancient virtue ethics and modern deontological ethics. This volume outlines the tumultuous history of the concrete application of ethical reflection on individual authors such as Epicurus and Seneca, Montaigne and Gracian, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, up to Erich Fromm and Michel Foucault. East Asian wisdom teachings are also taken into account in the presentation. The result is a life-philosophical concept of moral obligation that arises from the tension between the pursuit of happiness and the human capacity for happiness. In times of postmodern individualization and pluralization of ways of life, the Old Testament saying "To everything, there is a season" proves to be a principle of realistic art of living.