What does Stoicism say about happiness?

For many, the pursuit of happiness is a flickering flame, elusive and dependent on the caprice of fortune. We often mistake happiness for transient pleasure, for the fleeting gratification of desires, or for the accumulation of external goods. Yet, the ancient Stoics offered a profound and enduring counter-narrative, one that disentangles true well-being from the vicissitudes of the external world. For them, happiness, or *eudaimonia*, was not a fleeting emotion but a robust state of flourishing, a life lived in harmony with reason and nature. It was an internal citadel, impervious to the storms outside, built upon principles that have echoed through millennia.