Nothing venture, nothing gain. Early 17th century proverb
Then on the shore
Of the wide world I stand alone and think
Till love and fame to nothingness do sink. John Keats, 1818
I am certain of nothing but the holiness of the heart’s affections and the truth of imagination – what the imagination seizes as beauty must be truth – whether it existed or not. John Keats, letter 1817
The only means of strengthening one’s intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing – to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. Not a select party. John Keats
When in doubt what should be done, do nothing. William Lamb, Lord Melbourne, 1779-1848
He hath acknowledged from the dream of life –
’Tis we, who lost in stormy visions, keep
With phantoms an unprofitable strife,
And in mad trance, strike with our spirit’s knife,
Invulnerable nothings. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Adonis st39, 1821
She believed in nothing. Only her scepticism kept her from being an atheist. Jean-Paul Sartre
Nothingness lies coiled in the heart of a being – like a worm. Jean-Paul Sartre
Nothingness haunts being. Jean-Paul Sartre
For, after all, what is man in nature? … a middle point between all and nothing … What else can he do, then, but perceive some semblance of the middle of things, eternally hopeless of knowing either their principles or their end? All things have come out of nothingness and are carried onwards to infinity. Who can follow these astonishing processes? The author of these wonders understands them: no one else can. Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 1670
To do nothing is sometimes a good remedy. Hippocrates
Retirement is wonderful. It's doing nothing without worrying about getting caught at it. Gene Perret
Don’t underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering. Pooh’s Little Instruction Book, inspired by A A Milne
Science sent the Hubble telescope out into space, so it could capture light and the absence thereof, from the very beginning of time. And the telescope really did that. So now we know that there was once absolutely nothing, such a perfect nothing that there wasn’t even nothing or once. Kurt Vonnegut
Theoretical and experimental physicists are now studying nothing at all – the vacuum. But that nothingness contains all of being. Heinz R Pagels
With stealth I might secure the prize long term for ever in my debt. I could gain everything by doing nothing. Zoe Heller, Notes on a Scandal, 2003
One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine trees crusted with snow;
And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glotter
Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,
Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place
For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and nothing that is. Wallace Stevens, The Snow Man, 1921
Life seems but a quick succession of busy nothings. Jane Austen, Mansfield Park
You’re an ambulance chaser with a rank. You’re nothing. Live with that. A Few Good Men 1992 starring Tom Cruise & Demi Moore & Jack Nicholson & Kevin Bacon & Kiefer Sutherland & Kevin Pollak & Wolfgang Bodison & James Marshall & J T Walsh & J A Preston & Michael DeLorenzo & Noah Wyle & Cuba Gooding et al, director Rob Reiner, Moore to Cruise
Pop, I’m nothing! I’m nothing, Pop. Can’t you understand that? There’s no spite in it any more. I’m just what I am, that’s all. Arthur Miller, Death of a Salesman
There was nothing at all. Game of Thrones s6e3: Oathbreaker, HBO 2016
John Cage’s 4 minutes 33 seconds, 1952: ‘I have nothing to say and I am saying it.’ The Sound and the Fury: A Century of Music III: Easy Listening, BBC 2013
I believe in nothing. We are born and we die and that’s it: there’s nothing else. Francis Bacon, interview Melvyn Bragg South Bank Show, 1985
I’m optimistic about nothing. ibid.
People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day. A A Milne, Winnie-the-Pooh
‘What I like doing best is Nothing.’
‘How do you do Nothing?’ asked Pooh after he had wondered for a long time.
‘Well, it’s when people call out at you just as you’re going off to do it, ‘What are you going to do, Christopher Robin?’ and you say, ‘Oh, Nothing,’ and then you go and do it.’
‘It means just going along, listening to all the things you can’t hear, and not bothering.’
‘Oh!’ said Pooh. ibid.
I got nothing, man. Panic in Needle Park 1971 starring Al Pacino & Kitty Winn & Alan Vint & Richard Bright & Kiel Martin & Michael McClanathan & Warren Finnerty & Marcia Jean Kurtz & Raul Julia & Angie Ortega et al, director Jerry Schatzberg, Pacino to black man in street
Britain leads the world in the nothing industry. Spitting Image Election Special, ITV 1992
Sometimes nothing is the hardest thing to do. Game of Thrones7e6: Beyond the Wall ***** Tyrion to Daenerys, HBO 2017
In the world of now there are artists painting blank canvases – paintings of nothing. Because in modern art shocks matter, beauty matters but nothing matters too. Matthew Collings, What is Modern Art? IV: Nothing Matters, Channel 4 1998
Rothko – the artist who wanted the experience of looking at his paintings to be a breakdown and cry experience … Our tragic artist of nothingness. ibid.
Minimal art and Conceptual art – the other two big movements in New York art of the ’60s after Pop art. ibid.
[Donald] Judd: he’s one of modern art’s most powerful father figures: no-one can kill him. He’s certainly an authority for me – boxes live on. ibid.
Post-minimalism, a type of minimalism [Richard] Serra stands for, was minimalism that was curvy or scattered rather than square or cubified. ibid.
Emptiness: postmodern art of the ’70s and ’80s was an art where all the old meanings were drained out. ibid.
Nothingness: It is the beginning and the end of all creation. But what is it? Is empty space really empty? Or is it filled with hidden forces? Morgan Freeman’s Through the Wormhole s3e5: Can There Be Such a Thing as Nothing? Science 2012
Something must be keeping nothing in check. ibid.
An idea known as super-symmetry: every particle has a mirror-image partner. ibid.
A feeling of nothingness … What am I doing here? … The whole thing is a con game. House of Games 1987 starring Lindsay Crouse & Joe Mantegna & Steven Goldstein & Ricky Jay & Mike Bussbaum & J T Walsh & Lilia Skala & William H Macey et al, director David Mamet, patient to shrink Margaret
‘They wasn’t coming out. They were just inside. There was long periods of nothing.’ Grenfell, resident, BBC 2018