50 Big Ideas You Really Need to Know

• Definition: Love of fate.
• Insight: A core task of the wise is to distinguish what is within their power, and therefore what can be mastered; from what does not, which must be accepted gratefully.

"War is the continuation of politics by other means."

- Carl von Clausewitz

Insight: As long as humans remain, there will always be disputes (war) about which groups get to live where, and what resources belong to who.

• Definition: "Flourishing" or "well-being".
• Insight: The Greeks believed that the ultimate purpose of human activity is eudaimonia.
• Insight: The question that needs to be asked is "What is the best way to live?".
• Insight: Living virtuously is about habitually behaving appropriately by acquiring wisdom through training and experience.
• Reference: Aristotle believed that the ability to reason and act rationally in line with virtues and moral excellence is in line with eudaimonia and the best way to live.

"Remember that you are an actor in a drama, of such a part as it may please the master to assign you, for a long time or for a little as he may choose. And if he will you to take the part of a poor man, or a cripple, or a ruler, or a private citizen, then may you act that part with grace! For to act well the part that is allotted to us, that indeed is ours to do, but to choose it is another’s."

- Epictetus

Principle: Amor Fati - love of fate.

• Insight: Simple ideas often are easy targets for cynics and sophisticates, and that can be their weakness.