"And the end of all our exploration will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time."

--- T.S. Eliot, quoted by Marcus Chown in his New Scientist review (21 January 2012) of Dimitar Sasselov's new book The Life of Super-Earths: How the hunt for alien worlds and artificial cells will revolutionize life on our planet

Quote in context:

And the results of all this striving? To know ourselves, of course. Only by knowing what is possible, says Sasselov in this inspirational book, can we ever understand how life got going on Earth and why it has the characteristics it has. Sasselov quotes T. S. Eliot: "We must never cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploration will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time."