The better Epicureans were not given to sensual excesses. At least this doctrine helped to deliver the Romans from a more deadly form of fatalism; it taught that men could do something to improve their terrestrial status. [1]
Unbelieving materialists and fatalists can hope to enjoy only two kinds of peace and soul comfort: Either they must be stoics, with steadfast resolution determined to face the inevitable and to endure the worst; or they must be optimists, ever indulging that hope which springs eternal in the human breast, vainly longing for a peace which never really comes. [2] Primitive religion prevented fatalism; they believed they could at least do something to influence fate. [3] Jesus’ teaching to trust in the overcare of the heavenly Father was not a blind and passive fatalism. [4]