Nothing New Under The Sun

There is NothingNewUnderTheSun. In other words, you are not smart enough to create anything. Everything and anything that is relevant has already happened, been thought of, or tried. In other words, the future has already happened.

First said over three thousand years ago, when oddly enough the world was a very different place. Now usually quoted by people who haven't thought of or tried anything new.

Was it new when it was spoken, then? That's the question....

Corroborated... my poppa told me that the guy who originally said this never saw an Edsel. PEOPLE READING THIS may have never seen an Edsel.

"There is nothing new under the sun, but there are lots of old things we don't know." -- AmbroseBierce

It's interesting to see the quote in its context. Pretty depressing. Talk about ennui.

The words of the Teacher, son of David, king in Jerusalem:
"Meaningless! Meaningless!" says the Teacher. "Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless."
What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?
Generations come and generations go, but the earth abides forever.
The sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises.
The wind blows to the south and turns to the north; round and round it goes, ever returning on its course.
All streams flow into the sea, yet the sea is never full. To the place the streams come from, there they return again.
All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing.
What has been 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 new"? It was here already, long ago; it was here before our time.
There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.

(BookOfEcclesiastes 1:1-11, NIV).

In fact, ennui pervades all of Ecclesiastes except the final chapter.