Even if the creature who, compared to God, can be held to be nothing in a certain sense, just as in the case of incalculable infinitesimals, addition or subtraction of infinitely small quantities to or from ordinary numbers is negligible, still neither infinitesimals nor creatures can be regarded as nothing when they are compared among themselves. And just as proportionalities of an infinity of small lines are not regarded as insignificant among themselves by geometers, so indeed are the mutual relations of creatures not regarded as nothing by God: otherwise there would be nothing beautiful in the production of creatures.
G. W. Leibniz, Dissertation on Predestination and Grace, Murray, tr. & ed., Yale University Press (New Haven: 2011), p. 95.
