Nothing will come of nothing

Cultural  

1. You will gain nothing if you invest nothing. This saying is spoken by the title character in the play King Lear, by William Shakespeare. King Lear is telling his daughter Cordelia that she will gain no favors from him if she does not make elaborate speeches saying she loves him.

---

Example Sentences

But for the time being, it appears that nothing will come of nothing.

From Literature

What it does do is convey the belief that nothing will come of nothing, as another tyrant out of Shakespeare, King Lear, observed — that stasis breeds only more stasis.

From New York Times

“Nothing will come of nothing,” Shakespeare’s Lear darkly warns Cordelia in the opening scene.

From New York Times

"Nothing will come of nothing" is an axiom of art history, and the notion that Impressionism was a matter of innocent eyes doing sunlight with broken touches without "academic" preconceptions is strictly for the birds in the sunlit trees.

From Time Magazine Archive

"Nothing will come of nothing," King Lear told one of his daughters.

From Time Magazine Archive