“Nothing can be said: nothing sure, nothing probable, nothing honest.”

— Primo Levi , book The Wrench

The Wrench (1978)
Context: Nothing can be said: nothing sure, nothing probable, nothing honest. Better to err through omission than through commission: better to refrain from steering the fate of others, since it is already so difficult to navigate one's own.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Nothing can be said: nothing sure, nothing probable, nothing honest." by Primo Levi?

Primo Levi 44

Italian chemist, memoirist, short story writer, novelist, e… 1918–1987

Related quotes

“But if nothing does as well as something about which nothing can be said, it vanishes.”

Simon Blackburn (1944) British academic philosopher

Source: Think (1999), Chapter Five, God, p. 173

“Gone.
Vanished.
Nothing left.
Nothing said.”

Khaled Hosseini book And the Mountains Echoed

Source: And the Mountains Echoed

“Nothing can come of nothing.”

William Shakespeare King Lear

Lear, Act I, scene i.
Variant: Nothing will come of nothing: speak again.
Source: King Lear (1605–6)

“What is my identity?"
"Nothing," said the Master.
"You mean that I am an emptiness and a void?" said the incredulous disciple.
"Nothing that can be labeled.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

said the Master.
Source: One Minute Nonsense (1992), p. 109

“I can connect
Nothing with nothing”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

“Nothing can be produced out of nothing.”

Diogenes Laërtius (180–240) biographer of ancient Greek philosophers

Diogenes of Apollonia, 2.
The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers (c. 200 A.D.), Book 9: Uncategorized philosophers and Skeptics

“Nothing can be produced from nothing.”
Nil posse creari de nihilo.

Lucretius (-94–-55 BC) Roman poet and philosopher

Nil posse creari
de nihilo.
Book I, lines 156–157 (tr. Munro)
Variant translations:
Nothing can be created from nothing.
Nothing can be created out of nothing.
De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things)