This Latin phrase is applied broadly and may suggest that a dull mind can not be expected to produce great thoughts. The first-century Roman poet, Lucretius, wrote in De Rerum Natura about the creation of the world in which he said, Nil posse creari de nilo, "Nothing can be created out of nothing."

Another version is also given as Ex nihilo nihil fit suggesting that every effect must have a cause or that the world, for example, could not have been made from nothing.