Nothing comes from nothing

Sir,
In Wednesday’s article of “Campaign frenzy as election looms”, writer Andreas Avgousti pointed out that Ioannis Kasoulides’ attribution to Goethe’s Faust of the phrase ‘nothing can come from nothing’ ignored its prior use by Shakespeare in his play King Lear.

Shakespeare did indeed use this aphorism in King Lear, but was he the first to do it?

Long before Shakespeare, the Latins used a proverb “Ex nihilo nihil fit” which means “Nothing comes of nothing”.

The Stoic Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121-180 AD) in his Meditations states that “Nothing comes out of nothing and nothing can be annihilated”.

The Epicurean Roman poet Lucretius (99 – 55 BC) in his De Rerum Natura states: “Nothing comes out of nothing, nothing falls back into nothing if we consider substance; but everything comes from nothing and falls back into nothing if we consider things – the objects of love and experience.”

Last but not least, according to Taoism, “Not only can nothingness not be transformed into being [i.e. nothing can come out of nothing], but being cannot also be transformed into nothingness.”  
Dr. Bekir Azgin
Eastern Mediterranean University

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