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Why is there anything at all rather than nothing whatsoever?

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz

Philosophy consists mostly of kicking up a lot of dust and then complaining that you can’t see anything.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Complain Philosophy See Yourself
I have said more than once, that I hold space to be something purely relative, as time; an order of coexistences, as time is an order of successions.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Existence Hold Myself Order Space Time
There is nothing waste, nothing sterile, nothing dead in the universe; no chaos, no confusions, save in appearance.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Chaos Confusion Death Save Universe Wasted
Nothing is necessitated whose opposite is possible.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Necessary Possible
When God works miracles, he does not do it in order to supply the wants of nature, but those of grace. Whoever thinks otherwise, must needs have a very mean notion of the wisdom and power of God.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

God Miracle Order Power Thinking Wisdom
Now this connection or adaption of all created things with each, and of each with all the rest, means that each simple substance has relations which express all the others, and that consequently it is a perpetual living mirror of the universe.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Connection Creation Expression Relationship Simplicity Universe
I am so in favor of the actual infinite that instead of admitting that Nature abhors it, as is commonly said, I hold that Nature makes frequent use of it everywhere, in order to show more effectively the perfections of its Author.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Author Hold Myself Nature Perfection
God makes nothing without order, and everything that forms itself develops imperceptibly out of small parts.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Development God Order Small
We may say, that not only the soul (the mirror of an indestructible universe) is indestructible, but also the animal itself is, although its mechanism is frequently destroyed in parts.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Animal Destroy Philosophy Soul Spiritual Universe
It is necessary to believe that the mixture of evil has produced the greatest possible good: otherwise the evil would not have been permitted.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Believe Evil Good Necessary Possible Production
The greatness of a life can only be estimated by the multitude of its actions. We should not count the years, it is our actions which constitute our life.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Action Constitution Estimate Greatness Karma Life Ourselves
Every substance is as a world apart, independent of everything else except God.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Exception God Independent Substance World
Natural religion itself, seems to decay very much. Many will have human souls to be material: others make God himself a corporeal being.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

God Human Material Natural Religion Soul
Imaginary numbers are a fine and wonderful refuge of the divine spirit almost an amphibian between being and non-being.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Divine Imagination Number Spirit Wonderful
I am convinced that the unwritten knowledge scattered among men of different callings surpasses in quantity and in importance anything we find in books, and that the greater part of our wealth has yet to be recorded.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Greatness Knowledge Ourselves Quantity Record Wealth Writing
It is unworthy of excellent men to lose hours like slaves in the labor of calculation which could be relegated to anyone else if machines were used.
GOTTFRIED WILHELM LEIBNIZ

Excellence Lose Machine Man Slave Time