Q0324

Aristotle

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good.
Thinker Aristotle
School Aristotelianism
Source Nicomachean Ethics I.1
Theme Good
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Nicomachean Ethics I.1, 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 good, 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.). Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every action and choice, is thought to aim at some good. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0324

MLA: Aristotle. “Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0324.

Chicago: Aristotle. “Every art and every inquiry, and similarly every….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0324.

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 good

  1. What is not good for the hive is not good for the bee.
  2. To avoid all evil, to cultivate the good, and to cleanse one's mind—this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
  3. The good is the realization of personality.
  4. Seeing the good, be earnest to preserve it in yourself; seeing the not-good, be anxious to examine yourself.
  5. Conquer anger by non-anger; conquer evil by good.

Browse the good theme