Ecclesiastes 1:10

Is there any thing A man may challenge, the writer seems to say, the sweeping assertion just uttered. He may point to some new phenomenon, some new empire, some invention of art, or discovery of science. It is all to no purpose. It has been before in the vast æons (the Hebrew word for "of old time" is the plural of that commonly translated "age" or "eternity") of the recorded or unrecorded past. It is but an oblivion of what has been that makes us look to that which is to be as introducing a new element in the world's history. The thought was a favourite one with the Stoics. For a full account of their doctrine on this point see Zeller's Stoics and Epicureans, ch. 7. Aurelius does but sum up the teaching of the school, where he says, almost in the very words of Ecclesiastes, that "they that come after us will see nothing new, and that they who went before us saw nothing more than we have seen" (Meditt. xi. 1). "There is nothing new" (Ibid.vii. 1). "All things that come to pass now have come to pass before and will come to pass hereafter" (Ibid.vii. 26). So Seneca (Ep.xxiv.), "Omnia transeunt ut revertantur; Nil novi video, nil novi facio." ("All things pass away that they may return again; I see nothing new, I do nothing new.")