Meditations, Book 8, Section 48

Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor

But those craftsmen don't keep scraps in their shops because they lack somewhere to throw them out. They keep them for a while because they might be useful. The universe has no "outside" place to throw things away. This is what makes nature so amazing — she sets her own boundaries, and whatever seems corrupted, old, or useless within those boundaries, she transforms back into herself. She makes new things from the very materials that seemed worthless. She doesn't need to look outside herself for fresh supplies or for a place to dump what's rotten. For space, for materials, and for creative power, the universe is completely self-sufficient.

Marcus Aurelius — The Emperor Original

And yet those men, it is not for want of a place where to throw them that they keep them in their shops for a while: but the nature of the universe hath no such out-place; but herein doth consist the wonder of her art and skill, that she having once circumscribed herself within some certain bounds and limits, whatsoever is within her that seems either corrupted, or old, or unprofitable, she can change it into herself, and of these very things can make new things; so that she needeth not to seek elsewhere out of herself either for a new supply of matter and substance, or for a place where to throw out whatsoever is irrecoverably putrid and corrupt. Thus she, as for place, so for matter and art, is herself sufficient unto herself.