“Nothing happens for the first time, especially if what you’re trying to do is to invent something absolutely novel and unprecedented. Of course, if nothing happens for the first time, that leaves the apparent problem of how anything happens at all. But the difficulty is entirely semantic: in the eternal recurrence of subatomic configurations of which our world is a simulacrum, there is no question of beginnings or endings. There are only middles, continuations, repetitions. Originality is a concept possible only to a limited viewpoint.”
Slaves of Time (pp. 14-15)
Short fiction, The Robot Who Looked Like Me (1978)
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Robert Sheckley 114
American writer 1928–2005Related quotes
“Nothing ever happens in the world that does not happen first inside human hearts.”
Source: Life Is Worth Living
“At first first nothing will happen to us
and later on
it will happen to us again.”
Variant: first of all nothing will happen
and a little later
nothing will happen again
Source: Book of Longing
After AC Milan lose the Scudetto to Juventus in 2012 http://www.insideworldsoccer.com/2012/05/zlatan-ibrahimovic-not-used-to-winning.html.
Attributed
“Well, like they say, nothing can set a precedent until it happens for the first time.”
Source: Timescoop (1969), Chapter 19 (p. 122)
Was klein ist im Beginn wird oft am Ende überaus groß sein. Und so geschieht es, das wer im Anfange auch nur um ein Weniges von der Wahrheit abweicht, im Verlauf immer weiter und weiter und zu tausendmal größern Irrthümer fortgeführt wird.
On the Several Senses of Being in Aristotle (1862)
“Nothing comes ahead of its time, and nothing ever happened that didn't need to happen.”
“For a moment, nothing happened. Then, after a second or so, nothing continued to happen.”
Source: The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy