“Everything that happened, good or bad, would subtract something from the lessening store of useful energy, till a time arrived when nothing could happen any more, and the universe, frozen into eternal repose, would for ever be as if it were not.”

— Arthur James Balfour

Theism and humanism
Context: Everything that happened, good or bad, would subtract something from the lessening store of useful energy, till a time arrived when nothing could happen any more, and the universe, frozen into eternal repose, would for ever be as if it were not. /.../ The physical course of nature does not merely fail to indicate design, it seems loudly to proclaim its absence.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update July 26, 2023. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Everything that happened, good or bad, would subtract something from the lessening store of useful energy, till a time …" by Arthur James Balfour?

Arthur James Balfour photo

Arthur James Balfour48

British Conservative politician and statesman 1848–1930

Related quotes

“… most of the time we were alone and mixing up our souls ever more and ever more till it would be terribly hard to say good-by.”

Jack Kerouac book On the Road

Source: On the Road

“Whilst something is unknown, it could be anything. It could be the worst thing ever and usually when something starts to happen. You realise it’s not so bad.”

Jarvis Cocker (1963) English musician, singer-songwriter, radio presenter and editor

Playing at Bluedot Festival (2019)

“I would not sit waiting for some vague tomorrow, nor for something to happen. One could wait a lifetime, and find nothing at the end of the waiting. I would begin here, I would make something happen.”

Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Sackett's Land (1974), Ch. 4

“Even if God could lie, He would have no motivation. He can gain nothing by lying. Everything He wants to have happen happens.”

James MacDonald (1960) American pastor

Source: Always True (Moody, 2011), p. 51

“I assumed everything bad in the world could happen, because everything bad in the world already did happen.”

Gillian Flynn book Dark Places

Source: Dark Places

“Many of the good things would never have happened if the bad events hadn't happened first.”

Suze Orman (1951) American author, television personality, motivational speaker, businesswoman, investor

Source: The 9 Steps to Financial Freedom: Practical and Spiritual Steps So You Can Stop Worrying

“bad things, like good things don't happen any more often than they ought to by chance. the universe has no mind, no feelings, and no personality, so it doesn't do things in order to either hurt or please you. bad things happen because things happen.”

Richard Dawkins book The Magic of Reality

Source: The Magic of Reality: How We Know What's Really True

“That's the problem with drinking, I thought, as I poured myself a drink. If something bad happens you drink in an attempt to forget; if something good happens you drink in order to celebrate; and if nothing happens you drink to make something happen.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

“The person who teaches one chapter of guidance to the people will have a reward similar to all those who would act upon it, and nothing would be lessened or subtracted from the reward of those who practise it; and the one who teaches a chapter of misguidance, he will have the burden similar to each one who acts upon it, and nothing will be lessened from their burden of sin.”

Muhammad al-Baqir (677–733) fifth of the Twelve Shia Imams

Ibn Shu’ba al-Harrani, Tuhaf al-'Uqul, p. 297

“The universe would have expanded in a smooth way from a single point. As it expanded, it would have borrowed energy from the gravitational field, to create matter. As any economist could have predicted, the result of all that borrowing, was inflation. The universe expanded and borrowed at an ever-increasing rate. Fortunately, the debt of gravitational energy will not have to be repaid until the end of the universe.”

Stephen Hawking (1942–2018) British theoretical physicist, cosmologist, and author

The Beginning of Time (1996)

Related topics