 De summo bono (“On the Supreme Good”) is a passionate defense of the thesis that the ideal life is that of an intellectual, a philosopher, who spends his life in the pursuit of truth. It is a rhetorical masterpiece, containing one of the longest periods in all of Latin literature that keeps the reader in suspense for about two pages. According to Boethius, the supreme good possible for man consists in “knowing the true, doing the good, and taking delight in both”. By concentrating on the quest for truth, the philosopher comes to act in a morally correct way (a) because of the insight he has gained in what is base and what is noble, (b) because being absorbed in theoretical work and enjoying it he will not be tempted by sensual pleasures, and (c) because, as opposed to other activities, theorizing cannot be overdone. So, the philosopher “lives as man was born to live”.