Amor Fati: To Love What Is Necessary

The idea of Amor Fati, that is, to love one’s destiny, is one very close to the stoics, from Marcus Aurelius to Seneca, to Nietzche, who wrote the quote below.

“My formula for human greatness is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not in the future, not in the past, not for all eternity. Not only to endure what is necessary, still less to conceal it — all idealism is falseness in the face of necessity — , but to love it…

Now, does this idea of loving one’s fate mean we should remain passive towards life? To just accept things as they appear?

One could definitely interpret it that way.

However, I would like to belive this philosophy goes much deeper than that.

Instead, in my opinion, what it means is to avoid complaining and wishing for things to be different, while simultaneously, striving to do the best with what life has given us. To keep moving towards our ambitions with whatever tools we have at our disposal.

Now, while this sounds exciting and motivating on paper, in reality, things will be much different.

Of course, there will be days when you wish you just had a tiny bit more money, or connections, or luck, or whatever you think it is that you're missing.