The paper aims to a discussion of the possibility of reading Fichte’s Wissenschaftslehre such as a form of “art of living”. Firstly, it will be presented and discussed Fichte’s conception of ascetic, such as it was treated in the Aschetik als Anhang zur Moral of 1798 (§§ 2-3) and Fichte’s interpretation of the Besonnenheit in the commentary to the chapter XXV of Machiavelli’s Prince, that constitute a central element of 1807’s essay Machiavelli als Schriftsteller (§ 4). Finally, it will be critically valued the conditions of possibility for approximating Fichte’s concept of ascetic to the contemporary reflection upon the art of living developed from Michel Foucault and Wilhelm Schmid (§§ 4-5).