Full Idea
If the matter in things had not been everlasting, everything by now would have gone back to nothing, and the things we see would be the product of rebirth out of nothing.
Gist of Idea
If matter wasn't everlasting, everything would have disappeared by now
Source
Lucretius (On the Nature of the Universe [c.60 BCE], I.544)
Book Reference
Lucretius: 'On the Nature of the Universe', ed/tr. Latham,Ronald [Penguin 1951], p.43
A Reaction
See Idea 1431, which is Aquinas's Third Way of proving God. Aquinas thinks there must be a necessary being outside of the system, but Lucretius thinks there must be some necessary existence within the system (as Hume had suggested).
Related Idea