Final answer:
The first law of thermodynamics focuses on energy conservation, while the second law acknowledges that not all energy can be reused for work due to increases in entropy. The first law suggests 'you can't win' with respect to energy input and output, while the second law indicates 'you can't break even' as energy quality degrades and disorder increases with each transfer.
Step-by-step explanation:
The first law of thermodynamics concerns energy conservation, indicating that energy can neither be created nor destroyed, only transferred or transformed. On the other hand, the second law of thermodynamics addresses the directionality and quality of energy. It states that not all energy can be used for work as some becomes 'useless', for example, heat energy that disperses into the surroundings, increasing the entropy or disorder of a system. Thus, while the first law assures us that the total energy remains constant, the second law ensures that we cannot convert all of this energy into useful work, and with each energy transfer or transformation, the system becomes more disordered. We may summarize this by explaining the first law means 'you can't win'—as you cannot get more energy out than you put in, while the second law implies 'you can't break even'—as you cannot reuse all the energy again for work due to continuous increase in entropy.