But you see, you are still thinking in terms of the earth we have at present! Why, the earth we have at present may have repeated itself a billion times; you know - become extinct, frozen over, cracked, crumbled to pieces, disintegrated into its constituent origins, becoming the waters again, 'which were above the firmament,' then a comet again, then a sun, then another earth produced from that sun - I mean, this process of development may already have repeated itself an infinite number of times, and always in the same form, right down to the very last small detail.'

• eternal return