Although it is not clear if the dictum goes back to Parmenides (5th century BC) or the Milesian philosophers,[4] a more common version of the expression was coined by Lucretius, who stated in his De rerum natura that "nothing can be created out of nothing".
[6][7] Greek philosophers widely accepted the notion that creation acted on eternally existing, uncreated matter.
Though commonly credited to Parmenides, some historians believe that the dictum instead historically traces back to the Milesian philosophers.
[5] A typical expression of it can be found in the writings of Plutarch, which conditions that the structured and formed things that exist now derive from earlier, unformed and unshaped matter.
[10] The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius expressed this principle in his first book of De rerum natura (On the Nature of Things) (1.149–214).