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All men by nature desire to know.
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“All men by nature desire to know.”

Aristotle

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Source
Metaphysics
Date
c. 350 BCE
English wording
W. D. Ross — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning

Meaning of “All men by nature desire to know.”

Aristotle treats the desire for knowledge as a basic human tendency, giving curiosity a foundational place in the movement from perception toward understanding.

Source context

Where does it come from?

Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I, Chapter I, W. D. Ross translation (1908), validated Wikisource scan leaf 21. 'All men by nature desire to know' opens the work before the discussion of sensation, memory, experience, art and knowledge. This remains ancient philosophy mediated by translation, not a modern empirical finding about cognition.

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CuriosityDeepEducation Quotes About Teaching & Intellectual FormationLearning Quotes About Curiosity, Study & ExperienceLifeLife LessonsMindPhilosophyShortThinking Quotes About Reasoning, Reflection & JudgmentThought-Provoking Quotes That Invite ReflectionUnderstandingWisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living WellKnowledgePassion
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“He who knows only his own side of the case, knows little of that.”

John Stuart Mill · On Liberty · 1859
Meaning & context

Understanding a position requires serious contact with competing arguments; familiarity with only one side can produce confidence without real comprehension.

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On Liberty, Chapter 2; Mill argues for open discussion because opposing views expose weaknesses and sharpen understanding.

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Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.
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“Learning without thought is labour lost; thought without learning is perilous.”

Confucius · The Analects of Confucius · c. 5th century BCE
Meaning & context

Study and reflection are treated as partners: information without examination is shallow, while speculation without learning can drift away from reality.

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Analects 2:15 in James Legge’s translation; the saying balances study with independent reflection.

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And pause awhile from Learning to be wise;
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“And pause awhile from Learning to be wise;”

Samuel Johnson · The Vanity of Human Wishes · 1749
Meaning & context

Johnson distinguishes accumulating learning from exercising judgment, asking the scholar to interrupt pursuit of knowledge long enough to examine what wisdom requires.

Source details

The Vanity of Human Wishes (1749), first-edition scholar passage, Wikisource scan leaf 28. “And pause awhile from Learning to be wise” turns from the ambitious student’s pursuit of knowledge toward Johnson’s satirical warning that learning does not by itself remove grief, danger or error. This is eighteenth-century moral-satirical poetry after Juvenal, not a modern educational rule.

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And this is why knowledge is more honourable and excellent than true opinion, because fastened by a chain.
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“And this is why knowledge is more honourable and excellent than true opinion, because fastened by a chain.”

Plato · Meno · 4th century BCE
Voice: Dialogue speaker · Socrates
Meaning & context

Socrates compares an accurate opinion with understanding that can remain stable because it is connected to an explanation. In his illustration, true beliefs are useful but may slip away until they are secured by an account of their causes; the chain is a metaphor, not a claim about literal memory storage.

Source details

Meno, around Stephanus 97e–98a, Socrates addressing Meno after the Daedalus-statue comparison. The quoted standalone sentence immediately follows Socrates’s argument that right opinions can guide action but need to be tied down by an account of their cause. Benjamin Jowett English translation, Project Gutenberg #1643. The text and translational phrasing are Jowett’s; the dialogue does not treat every true opinion as worthless.

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One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.
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“One can never read too little of bad, or too much of good books: bad books are intellectual poison; they destroy the mind.”

Arthur Schopenhauer · Essays of Schopenhauer — On Books and Reading · 1851
Meaning & context

The deliberately severe contrast argues that reading quality matters because repeated exposure influences the habits and material of thought.

Source details

Essay “On Books and Reading,” public-domain English text.

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The fool who knows his foolishness, is wise at least so far. But a fool who thinks himself wise, he is called a fool indeed.
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“The fool who knows his foolishness, is wise at least so far. But a fool who thinks himself wise, he is called a fool indeed.”

The Dhammapada · The Dhammapada · ancient
Meaning & context

The verse treats recognition of one’s own foolishness as the beginning of wisdom, while self-certainty without understanding becomes a deeper form of ignorance.

Source details

Dhammapada 63, Chapter V, “The Fool,” F. Max Müller translation, Project Gutenberg #2017. The verse belongs to a Buddhist canonical collection and remains a textual source voice rather than a modern individual-author quotation.

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