Amor Fati is a Latin phrase that means “love of one’s fate”. The Stoics believe that the world behaves in a rational and coherent way in a series of cause and effect events. The cause can be anything but the effect is to preserve the entirety of the universe. The fact that the world has existed for billions of years is a manifestation of how Nature behaves in such a way to preserve itself. Think death is bad? The stoic emperor Marcus Aurelius said death a must process and natural and nothing natural is evil. We die so other people may start living. Everything has its purpose, designed by Nature. Our job, therefore, is to embrace whatever happens to use – to love our fate.
Top 10 Quotes
"With what leaves us dyed indelibly by justice, welcoming wholeheartedly whatever comes— Whatever we’re assigned—not worrying too often, or with any selfish motive, about what other people say. Or do, or think."
"He does only what is his to do, and considers constantly what the world has in store for him—doing his best, and trusting that all is for the best. For we carry our fate with us —and it carries us."
"Nature is pliable, obedient. And the logos that governs it has no reason to do evil. It knows no evil, does none, and causes harm to nothing. It dictates all beginnings and all endings."
“Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.”
“That every event is the right one. Look closely and you’ll see. Not just the right one overall, but right. As if someone had weighed it out with scales.”
“Something happens to you. Good. It was meant for you by nature, woven into the pattern from the beginning.”
“Hand yourself over to Clotho voluntarily, and let her spin you into whatever she pleases.”
“In short, know this: Human lives are brief and trivial. Yesterday a blob of semen; tomorrow embalming fluid, ash. To pass through this brief life as nature demands. To give it up without complaint. Like an olive that ripens and falls. Praising its mother, thanking the tree it grew on.”
“It’s unfortunate that this has happened. No. It’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve remained unharmed by it—not shattered by the present or frightened of the future. It could have happened to anyone. But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it.”
“So remember this principle when something threatens to cause you pain: the thing itself was no misfortune at all; to endure it and prevail is great good fortune.”
Subscribe To Our Newsletter
FREE weekly practical tips, reflections and key takeaways from the works of the stoics
