The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
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Interpretation
Men's hearts and their corruptions are the same now as in former times; their desires, and pursuits, and complaints, still the same. This should take us from expecting happiness in the creature, and quicken us to seek eternal blessings.
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This thought runs through Ecclesiastes 1:9-11.
Ecclesiastes 1:9 quoted in popular culture
- Adrienne Maree Brown
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: room for making mistakes. Octavia Butler said that “[t]here’s nothing new / under the sun , / but there are new suns.” We are in a time of new suns. We’re
- Age of Enlightenment
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: E. Jephcott, trans. p. 6. The arid wisdom which acknowledges nothing new under the sun , because all the pieces in the meaningless game have been played
- Alain de Botton
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: we are. p. 127-128. It seemed too easy to claim that there was nothing new under the sun , that … our spear-wielding ancestors had been as wise and good
- Colin Wilson
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: shall never fall into the mistake of complaining that there is nothing new under the sun and that life is futile. p. 13 And at once I saw with great clarity
- David Dixon Porter
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: general claimed the powder-boat as an original idea, but there is nothing new under the sun , and such a means of attack has been employed before. p. 269 The
- Dialectic of Enlightenment
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: principle of myth itself. That arid wisdom that holds there is nothing new under the sun … merely reproduces the fantastic wisdom that it supposedly rejects:
- Dutch proverbs
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: Er is niets nieuws onder de zon. English equivalent: There is nothing new under the sun . Strauss, Emanuel (1994). Dictionary of European proverbs (Volume
- Ecclesiastes
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun . Is there anything of which one can say, "Look! This is something
- English proverbs
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: Dictionary of Proverbs. p. 94. GGKEY:3DUS38CW7YC. There is nothing new under the sun . "It turns out very often that something 'never seen/experienced
- Eternal return
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun . Ecclesiastes 1:9 Even if there were exceedingly few things in
- Imagination
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: principle of myth itself. That arid wisdom that holds there is nothing new under the sun … merely reproduces the fantastic wisdom that it supposedly rejects:
- Invention
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun .") Anecdotally misattributed to Charles H. Duell, Commisioner
- Italian proverbs
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: 0415160502. Niente di nuovo sotto il sole. English equivalent: Nothing new under the sun . Meaning: Absolutely everything has been done before. Strauss
- J. J. Thomson
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: in the 1870's: that there was nothing left to be discovered, nothing new under the sun . Part of the immutable wisdom of the day, endorsed and believed
- Joseph Heller
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: practically invented it. Didn't I once observe that there is nothing new under the sun ? Love is potent stuff, isn't it? Destiny is a good thing to accept
- Latin proverbs
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: become public. Nihil sub sole novum. English equivalentː There's nothing new under the sun . Vulgate, Ecclesiastes 1.10. Green, Tamara M. (2003). The Greek
- Man and Superman
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: profound truth of the saying of my friend Koheleth, that there is nothing new under the sun . Vanitas vanitatum. The Devil Were I not possessed with a purpose
- Mary Wollstonecraft
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: suppose, that Solomon alluded when he declared that there was nothing new under the sun ! Letter 2 Friendship and domestic happiness are continually praised;
- Nas
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: through a broken sky You're Da Man No idea is original, there's nothing new under the sun , it's never what you do, but how it's done No Idea's Original
- Norwegian proverbs
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: Dei er inkje nytt under solen. English equivalent: There is nothing new under the sun . "It turns out very often that something 'never seen/experienced
- Past, present, and future
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: New York City (December 2, 1970); transcript, p. 2. There is nothing new under the sun . Various authors. Some give as a first source the Bible, Ecclesiastes
- Problem solving
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: shall never fall into the mistake of complaining that there is nothing new under the sun and that life is futile. Colin Wilson in Access to Inner Worlds
- Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: man also, in Eccles. 1:10, distinctly teaches that "there is nothing new under the sun ," and in verses 11, 12, illustrating the same idea, he adds that
- Tremors
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: Melvin Plug Richard Marcus as Nestor Cunningham They say there's nothing new under the sun . But under the ground... Wikipedia has an article about: Tremors
- Two Upbuilding Discourses, 1844
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: he has seen the wondrous, but it amazes him no more; there is nothing new under the sun , and nothing marvelous in life. If, however, a person knew how
- United States Navy
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: general claimed the powder-boat as an original idea, but there is nothing new under the sun , and such a means of attack has been employed before... The navy
- Wisława Szymborska
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Wikiquote match for "nothing new under the sun" · Wikiquote search matched the biblical phrase "nothing new under the sun". Snippet: maintain the temperature required for sustaining life. "There's nothing new under the sun ": that's what you wrote, Ecclesiastes. But you yourself were born