The quote on the subject’s chest, “Nothing can be created out of nothing” comes from the Roman philosopher Lucretius in his work De Rerum Natura (around 50 BCE).

At its core, it means: Nothing just appears out of nowhere—everything comes from something that already exists.

Lucretius was building on earlier ideas from Epicurus and early atomic theory. He believed the universe is made of tiny, eternal particles (atoms), and everything we see is just those particles rearranging, not being magically created or destroyed.