Alfred Bester, The Demolished Man.
In the endless universe there is nothing new, nothing different. What may appear exceptional to the minute mind of man may be inevitable to the infinite Eye of God. This strange second in a life, this unusual event, those remarkable coincidences of environment, opportunity, and encounter. . . all may be reproduced over and over on the planet of a sun whose galaxy revolves once in 200 million years and has revolved 9 times already.
There are and have been worlds and cultures without end, each nursing the proud illusion that it is unique in space and time. There have been men without number suffering from the same megalomania; men who imagine themselves unique, irreplaceable, irreproducible. There will be more. . . more plus infinity. This is the story of such a time and such a man. . . The Demolished Man.
