Hoyt & Roberts, comps. Hoyt’s New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations. 1922.
Nothingness
Nothing proceeds from nothingness, as also nothing passes away into non-existence.
Marcus Aurelius—Meditations. IV. 4.
Why and Wherefore set out one day,
To hunt for a wild Negation.
They agreed to meet at a cool retreat
On the Point of Interrogation.
Oliver Herford—Metaphysics.
Nothing to do but work,
Nothing to eat but food,
Nothing to wear but clothes,
To keep one from going nude.
Ben King—The Pessimist.
Nil actum credens, dum quid superesset agendum.
Believing nothing done whilst there remained anything else to be done.
Lucanus—Pharsalia. Bk. II. 657.
Nil igitur fieri de nilo posse putandum es
Semine quando opus est rebus.
We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from.
Lucretius—De Rerum Natura. Bk. I. L. 206.
Haud igitur redit ad Nihilum res ulla, sed omnes
Discidio redeunt in corpora materiai.
Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements.
Lucretius—De Rerum Natura. Bk. I. 250.
Nothing’s new, and nothing’s true, and nothing matters.
Attributed to Lady Morgan.
Gigni
De nihilo nihil, in nihilum nil posse reverti.
Nothing can be born of nothing, nothing can be resolved into nothing.
Persius—Satires. I, 111. 83.
Gratis anhelans, multa agendo nihil agens.
Sibi molesta, et aliis odiosissima.
Out of breath to no purpose, in doing much doing nothing. A race (of busybodies) hurtful to itself and most hateful to all others.
Phædrus—Fables. Bk. II. 5. 3.
It is, no doubt, an immense advantage to have done nothing, but one should not abuse it.
Rivarol—Preface to Petit Almanach de nos Grands Hommes.
Nothing, thou elder brother e’en to shade.
Rochester—Poem on Nothing.
Operose nihil agunt.
They laboriously do nothing.
Seneca—De Brev. Vitæ. Bk. I. 13.
Where every something, being blent together
Turns to a wild of nothing.
Merchant of Venice. Act III. Sc. 2.
A life of nothing’s nothing worth,
From that first nothing ere his birth,
To that last nothing under earth.
Tennyson—Two Voices.