I used to be a nihilist…
I love to talk about nothing. It’s the only thing I know anything about.
Oscar Wilde
What can you say about nothing? Let’s find out!
Today is National Nothing Day, so I’d like to begin by saying absolutely nothing, in keeping with the spirit of the holiday.
Ever been caught “doing nothing” and shamed into feeling lazier than the average person? Rest assured, that might not happen today, January 16, National Nothing Day. National Nothing Day has been “celebrated” since 1973. Since the trappings and pomp of the holiday literally add up to nothing, like its namesake, there’s not a lot to tell. A mind-teaser does occur to us, though — if you’re doing nothing, aren’t you doing something, with nothing as the thing you’re doing?
National Nothing Day
Observing National Nothing Day
I see nothing! I hear nothing! I know nothing, nothing!
Sgt. Shultz – Hogan’s Heroes
The list of things that can be done in observance of National Nothing Day is heavy on nothing, since it contains both doing nothing, and saying nothing. And, by actually writing this post, it could be considered that I’m doing something, so quite obviously I had to write this in advance, the day before National Nothing Day.
We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.
Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
You Can’t Just Sit Around Doing Nothing
I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.
Plato, The Republic
One of my Mom’s favorite sayings was, “You can’t just sit around doing nothing all the time!” And you know, maybe she was right, but for the wrong reason.
Make sense?
I hope so because I’m not explaining this one. Explaining would be doing something, and quite obviously I can’t do that today!
Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada. Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.
Ernest Hemingway, A Clean Well-Lighted Place
Finding Something in Nothing
To do nothing is the way to be nothing.
Nathaniel Hawthorne
Back in the past, I was an absolute master of making something of nothing.
I mean isn’t that what politics in the US have become? Two sides making something of nothing because the two parties must appear to be different!
Well…Rather than go down that political rabbit hole, I think I’ll just stick with nothing for today, than you very much!
Life has no meaning a priori… It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose.
Jean-Paul Sartre
