It is said that there are no sudden changes in nature, and the common view has it that when we speak of a growth or a destruction, we always imagine a gradual growth or disappearance. Yet we have seen cases in which the alteration of existence involves not only a transition from one proportion to another, but also a transition, by a sudden leap, into a qualitatively different thing; an interruption of a gradual process, differing qualitatively from the preceding, the former state.
― "Science of Logic" by Georg F. Hegel