Q0323

Aristotle

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

All human beings by nature desire to know.
Thinker Aristotle
School Aristotelianism
Source Metaphysics I.1, 980a21
Theme Knowledge
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Metaphysics I.1, 980a21, within the tradition of Aristotelianism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of knowledge, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Aristotle's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Aristotle. (n.d.). All human beings by nature desire to know. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0323

MLA: Aristotle. “All human beings by nature desire to know..” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0323.

Chicago: Aristotle. “All human beings by nature desire to know..” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0323.

Same thinker

More from Aristotle

  1. It is through wonder that people both now begin and first began to philosophize.
  2. The human good is activity of soul in accordance with virtue.
  3. Virtues arise in us neither by nature nor contrary to nature; we are fitted by nature to receive them, and are brought to completion by habit.
  4. Virtue is a state concerned with choice, lying in a mean relative to us.
  5. Man is by nature a political animal.

All quotations by Aristotle

Same theme

More on knowledge

  1. What I do not know, I do not claim to know.
  2. No one errs willingly.
  3. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  4. What do I know?
  5. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.

Browse the knowledge theme