Nietzsche, in The Gay Science and Thus Spoke Zarathustra, wrote in fear of the principle of 'The Eternal Return' - as that which forms the fundamental affirmation of life itself.
"What, if some day or night a demon were to steal after you into your loneliest loneliness and say to you: 'This life as you now live it and have lived it, you will have to live once more and innumerable times more' ... Would you not throw yourself down and gnash your teeth and curse the demon who spoke thus? Or have you once experienced a tremendous moment when you have answered him: 'You are a god and never have I heard anything more divine." (The Gay Science, p. 341)
Happiness is, as Kundera notes, the longing for repetition. But in the cycle of an eternal return, happiness cannot be without its accompanying doppleganger. There is no joy without pain, no laughter without tears, no life without death. And that is the principle of an eternal return...
I would have no need for it. Once is enough.
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