“There was nothing, nothing there,
Nothing there to see.”

— Vita Sackville-West

"Leopards at Knole", p. 143
Collected Poems (1933)
Context: Often on the painted stair,
As I passed abstractedly,
Velvet footsteps, two and three,
Padded gravely after me.
— There was nothing, nothing there,
Nothing there to see.

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Vita Sackville-West 39

English writer and gardener 1892–1962

Gilles Deleuze (1925–1995) French philosopher

Source: A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia

“Memory. — It is a mirror, that retains, and retains forever. Nothing is lost in it, nothing is erased. But it can be tarnished. And then one sees nothing in it.”

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist

“A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.”

Jane Austen book Emma

Source: Emma

“There is nothing you can see that is not a flower;
There is nothing you can think that is not the moon.”

Bashō Matsuo (1644–1694) Japanese poet

見るところ花にあらずと云ふことなし、
思ふところ月にあらずと云ふことなし。
Miru tokoro hana ni arazu to iu koto nashi,
omou tokoro tsuki ni arazu to iu koto nashi
Classical Japanese Database, Translation #172 http://carlsensei.com/classical/index.php/translation/view/172 (Translation: Reginald Horace Blyth)
Statements
Variant: There is nothing you can see that is not a flower;
There is nothing you can think that is not the moon.

“When I'm drinking my Bonaparte shandy
eating more than enough apple pies
will I glance at my screen
and see real human beings
starve to death right in front of my eyes?
Nothing old, nothing new, nothing ventured,
nothing gained, nothing stillborn or lost,
nothing further than proof, nothing wilder than youth,
nothing older than time, nothing sweeter than wine,
nothing physically recklessly hopelessly blind,
nothing I couldn't say
Nothing. Why? 'Cos today nothing rhymed”

Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) Irish singer-songwriter

"Nothing Rhymed" (song)
Gilbert O'Sullivan. A live performance. On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtoefxZGR6U
Gilbert O'Sullivan. A performance with orchestra, c.2017. On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-SWTPDPriA
Gilbert O'Sullivan. Observations about "Nothing Rhymed", fifty years on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2BlxtcH39Q (On YouTube)
(+ A cover version by Franklin Brown on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6kuZyk5WJ8
(+ A cover version by Colleen Coughlan on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LcqndbjOPTs
(+ A cover version by Conor McCauley on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nAb0-7J9d4
(+ A cover version by The Ocelots on YouTube) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRCDFiRaRA0
(+ Guitar instrumental by Phil McGarrick) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DmzFaUC1rDI
Song lyrics
Source: Gilbert O'Sullivan, "Nothing Rhymed" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGE6gzkMAfw (song on YouTube)