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Why is there anything at all rather than nothing whatsoever?

— Gottfried Leibniz De rerum originatione radicali (1697)

cur aliquid potius extiterit quam nihil

Original text (Latin)

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Notes from Wikiquote

Cf. Martin Heidegger, What is Metaphysics? (1929)ː "Warum ist überhaupt Seiendes und nicht vielmehr Nichts? Das ist die Frage."

More quotes by Gottfried Leibniz

And as every present state of a simple substance is naturally a consequence of its preceding state, so its present is pregnant with its future.

The Monadology (1714)

Everything that is possible demands to exist.

De veritatibus primis (1686)

Every substance is as a world apart, independent of everything else except God.

Discours de métaphysique (1686)

Music is a hidden arithmetic exercise of the soul, which does not know that it is counting.

TO LOVE is to find pleasure in the happiness of others.

A Dialogue (1696)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Gottfried Leibniz (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.