Abstract
An empirical principle of complete faceting of crystals, implemented during evolution of their free shape in nature, has been formulated: the set of polyhedra that can be used to describe the free shape of macrocrystals of minerals tends to the class of holohedral morphological types, formed by the symmetry-equivalent surfaces dominant on the crystal, and their probabilities cease to depend on time. This principle, which is applicable both to the growth forms and crystal dissolution, is a macroscopic consequence of the main principle of nonequilibrium thermodynamics: the tendency of an open system to the minimum production of entropy.
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