A process ab aeterno is at least as unimaginable as the process of creation ex nihilo; if it be not altogether inconceivable to boot.

I use the word "Artistic" as more nearly expressing an almost unstatable idea than any other I can think of, for the work of the artist approaches more closely to creation ex nihilo than any other form of human activity.

In such a conception as this we find the importance of the two leading principles to which I have drawn attentionfirst, the power of the Spirit to create ex nihilo, and secondly, the individual's recognition of the basic principle of Unity giving permanence and solidity to the frame of Nature.

From the principle ex nihilo nihil fit he concluded that nothing could pass from non-existence to existence.

But allow it to be by some other way which is above our conception, it must still be creation; and these men must give up their great maxim, EX NIHILO NIL FIT.

ex nihilo nihil [Lat.]; fiat lux [Lat.]; materiam superabat opus [Lat.]

Confidentes garrulique et malevoli supra lacum, Qui alteri de nihilo audacter dicunt contumeliam

The old maxim "nihil ex nihilo fit" is as true in commerce as in chemistry.

E nihilo nihil fit.

Exit saepe foras magnis ex aedibus ille, Esse domi quem pertaesum est, subitoque reventat, Quippe foris nihilo melius qui sentiat esse.

"Obstipo capite, et figentes lumine terram, Murmura cum secum, et rabiosa silentia rodunt, Atque experrecto trutinantur verba labello, Aegroti veteris meditantes somnia, gigni De nihilo nihilum; in nihilum nil posse reverti.

Incredibilis navigiorum copia, nihilo pauciores in aquis, quam in continenti commorantur.

Herod, nihilo cum eo melius quam si quis Cicutam, Aconitum, &c. 1447.

Multi contemnunt mundi strepitum, reputant pro nihilo gloriam, sed timent infamiam, offensionem, repulsam.

In disciplinis humanis nihil praestantius reperitur: quippe miracula quaedam numerorum eruit tam abstrusa et recondita, tanta nihilo minus facilitate et voluptate, ut, &c. 3361.

Company is, in itself, better than solitude, and pleasure better than indolence: "Ex nihilo nihil fit," says the moral, as well as the natural, philosopher.

It follows from this same principle, ex nihilo nihil fit, however, that the cause must contain as much reality or perfectionrealitas and perfectio are synonymousas the effect, for otherwise the overplus would have come from nothing.

And so, with "ex nihilo nil fit," he laughingly ends his letter.

Ex nihilo nihil fit.

The common objection to admitting novelties is that by jumping abruptly in, ex nihilo, they shatter the world's rational continuity.

Incerta hæc si tu postules Ratione certâ facere, nihilo plus agas, Quàm si des operam, ut cum ratione insanias.

He had no idea of any relation of subordination or dependence in the above sophisms, as I have just proved them to be, whether arranged as 3, 2, 1, or 1, 2, 3, or 2, 3, 1, or in any other order in which the possible permutations of three things, taken 3 and 3 together, can exhibit them; ex nihilo, nil fit; and three nonentities can yield just as little.

For the intelligence and will of man are creative forcesnot creative ex nihilo, but creative as is the brain of the painterand these forces are exercised by man in every act of thought.