Context

This line is spoken by Rust Cohle, played by Matthew McConaughey, in the TV show True Detective (2014).

Rust Cohle is the (true) hero of all (true) masculine philosophers. They cannot shave, they can drink all day, yet they can still be (true) intellectuals. Even though he is being interrogated by (false) detectives regarding an old murder, Cohle still finds the time to go off on unrelated philosophical tangents.

Perhaps he thinks he has time because he spouts off a little eternal recurrence theory from his old Nietzsche 101 class: "Someone once told me, 'Time is a flat circle.' Everything we've ever done or will do, we're gonna do over and over and over again."

So, basically, life is nothing if not predictable.

Where you've heard it

You've heard this from the (true) armchair philosopher in your life. If this means we have to listen to this quote over and over and over again, we hope the quote is wrong.

Additional Notable References:

• Mega Man can help explain the actual philosophy behind this quote.
• Somehow, this quote is also a World of Warcraft Achievement.
• Existentialism and adult-language meets Family Circus in "Time is a Flat Circus."

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

This quote makes you sound like someone whose idea of original thought is repeating a quote from TV show writer who may have already plagiarized it himself.