Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophy on the idea of 'eternal recurrence'.
"Time is infinite, but the things in time, the concrete bodies, are finite. They may indeed disperse into the smallest particles; but these particles, the atoms, have their determinate numbers, and the numbers of the configurations which, all of themselves, are formed out of them is also determinate. Now, however long a time may pass, according to the eternal laws governing the combinations of this eternal play of repetition, all configurations which have previously existed on this earth must yet meet, attract, repulse, kiss, and corrupt each other again..."
- Kaufmann, Walter. Nietzsche; Philosopher, Psychologist, Antichrist. 1959, page 276.
Challenging Friedrich Nietzsche’s concept of eternal recurrence (the universe and its events have already occurred and will recur), The Unbearable Lightness of Being suggests an alternative, that each person has only one life to live, and that which occurs in that life, occurs only once and shall never occur again — thus the “lightness” of being; whereas eternal recurrence imposes a “heaviness” on our lives and on the decisions we make (it gives them weight, to borrow from Nietzsche's metaphor), a heaviness that Nietzsche thought could be either a tremendous burden or great benefit depending on one's perspective.
