Not sure if this is chemistry or physics so I’m flairing it as ‘Other’.
In: Physics
Not all atoms are more stable in bonds with other atoms. Noble gases, for example, are quite stable by themselves and don’t readily bond to anything (hence “noble”), and helium bonds with almost nothing – IIRC it will only bond with fluorine and only under extreme circumstances.
Some atoms, like fluorine, will readily bond with any damn thing. However, once it’s in a molecule, it’s already grabbing onto that thing really damn hard so it’s reluctant to grab onto something else. It absolutely will, though, if the something else forms a more stable bond.
As a more tangible example, consider oxygen. It’ll bond to itself as O2, and that’s stable *enough*. But a bond with hydrogen or carbon would be more stable. Cellulose is a major component of wood, and is made of a lot hydrogen and carbon stuck together. The hydrogen and carbon atoms need a bit of energy to make them let go of each other first, but once they do the O2 will easily break apart and grab hold of the hydrogen and carbon to make CO2 and H2O.
You’ll notice, though, that if you put a match to H2O (water) it doesn’t fall apart. That’s a very stable bond. It’s hard to get them apart. Add more oxygen and you just get O2 dissolved in H2O. Sodium, though, is even grabbier than oxygen (under certain circumstances) so when you add sodium to water, the sodium grabs the absolute shit out of OH ions and leaves that second H to wander off and join with another H, giving you NaOH and H2.
So, even if all of the matter in the universe was already in its most stable, least energetic molecular bond with other atoms, that doesn’t mean they’d all be stuck to each other.
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