N is for NOTHINGNESS

Eternal nothingness is fine if you happen to be dressed for it.
- Woody Allen

Nothing happens until something moves.
- Albert Einstein



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 out but clothes,
To keep one from going nude.
- Benjamin Franklin King, Jr., The Pessimist



Believing nothing does whilst there remained anything else to be done.
[Lat., Nil actum credens, dum quid superesset agendum.]
- Lucanus (Marcus Annaeus Lucan), Pharsalia
(bk. II, 657)

Therefore there is not anything which returns to nothing, but all things return dissolved into their elements.
[Lat., Haud igitur redit ad Nihilum res ulla, sed omnes
Discidio redeunt in corpora materiai.]
- Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus),
De Rerum Natura (bk. I, 250)



We cannot conceive of matter being formed of nothing, since things require a seed to start from.
[Lat., Nil igitur fieri de nilo posse putandum es
Semine quando opus est rebus.]
- Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus),
De Rerum Natura (bk. I, l. 206)

Nothing proceeds from nothingness, as also nothing passes away into non-existence.
- Marcus Aurelius (Marcus Aurelius Antoninus),
Meditations (IV, 4)



Nothing's new, and nothing's true, and nothing matters.
- attributed to Lady Sydney Morgan

Nothing can be born of nothing, nothing can be resolved into nothing.
[Lat., Gigni
De nihilo nihil, in nihilum nil posse reverti.]
- Persius (Aulus Persius Flaccus), Satires
(I, 111, 83)



Out of breath to no purpose, in doing much doing nothing. A race (of busybodies) hurtful to itself and most hateful to all others.
[Lat., Gratis anhelans, multa agendo nihil agens.
Sibi molesta, et aliis odiosissima.]
- Phaedrus (Thrace of Macedonia), Fables
(bk. II, 5, 3)

It is, no doubt, an immense advantage to have done nothing, but one should not abuse it.
- Antoine de Rivarol, Comte de Rivarol,
Petit Almanach de nos Grands Hommes
(preface)



They laboriously do nothing.
[Lat., Operose nihil agunt.]
- Seneca (Lucius Annaeus Seneca),
De Brevitate Vitoe (bk. I, 13)

Madam, you have bereft me of all words.
Only my blood speaks to you in my veins,
And there is such confusion in my powers
As, after some oration fairly spoke
By a beloved prince, there doth appear
Among the buzzing pleased multitude,
Where every something being blent together
Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy
Expressed and not expressed.
- William Shakespeare,
The Merchant of Venice
(Bassanio at III, ii) BUY VARYING HARE USED BOOK



It is better to have a little than nothing.
- Syrus (Publilius Syrus), Maxims

A life of nothing's nothing worth,
From that first nothing ere his birth,
To that last nothing under earth.
- Lord Alfred Tennyson, Two Voices



Nothing, thou elder brother e'en to shade.
- John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester,
Poem on Nothing

Nothing was ever done so systematically as nothing is being done now.
- Thomas Woodrow Wilson