amor fati

is, as a formula for greatness, the idea that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary but love it.

My formula for greatness in a human being is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not forward, not backward, not in all eternity. Not merely bear what is necessary, still less conceal it all idealism is mendaciousness in the face of what is necessary but love it Friedrich Nietzsche

is the absolute love of fate (i.e. Of what is necessary in things). It involves a staunch refusal to denounce or accuse or accuse those who accuse things as they are, have been, or will be.

I want to learn more and more to see as beautiful what is necessary in things... then I shall be one of those who make things beautiful. Amor fati: let that be my love henceforth! I do not want to wage war against what is ugly. I do not want to accuse... I do not even want to accuse those who accuse. Looking away shall be my only negation. And all in all and on the whole: some day I wish to be only a Yes-sayer. (section 276 of The Gay Science)

is the act of freely assuming what is otherwise necessary. It is the activity of submitting oneself to the inevitable.

The subject's elementary, founding, gesture is to subject itself voluntarily, of course: as both Wagner and Nietzsche, the two great opponents, were well aware of, the highest act of freedom is the display of amor fati, the act of freely assuming what is otherwise necessary. If, then, the subject's activity is, at its most fundamental, the activity of submitting oneself to the inevitable, the fundamental mode of object's passivity, of its passive presence, is that which moves, annoys, disturbs, traumatizes us (subjects): the object is at its most radical that which objects, that which disturbs the smooth run of things.' (zizek http://www.lacan.com/zizparallax.htm)

is to want nothing to be other than it is, not in the future, not in the past, not in all eternity.

amor fati: that one wants nothing to be other than it is, not in the future, not in the past, not in all eternity.

amor fati, n.Definitions

amor fati