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All things, then, seek the good.
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“All things, then, seek the good.”

Boethius

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Source
The Consolation of Philosophy
Date
c. 524
English wording
H. R. James — Translator · from Latin
Meaning

Meaning of “All things, then, seek the good.”

Boethius frames action as movement toward some perceived good, making the nature of genuine goodness central to understanding desire, purpose, and happiness.

Source context

Where does it come from?

The Consolation of Philosophy, Book III, Chapter XI, H. R. James translation (Elliot Stock, 1897), printed page 149 in Project Gutenberg #14328. Lady Philosophy reaches ‘All things, then, seek the good’ after arguing that things naturally seek continued existence and unity, and that unity and goodness are the same. This remains late-antique metaphysical/philosophical argument mediated by translation, not an empirical description of every human motive or modern behavioral science.

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Every action and moral choice, aims, it is thought, at some good.
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“Every action and moral choice, aims, it is thought, at some good.”

Aristotle · Nicomachean Ethics · 4th century BCE
Meaning & context

Actions and choices are intelligible because they pursue something taken to be good, even when people disagree about what the good actually is.

Source details

Nicomachean Ethics, Book I; the opening argument begins from the idea that action aims at a perceived good.

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life is the end and aim of consumption.
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“life is the end and aim of consumption.”

John Ruskin · Unto This Last and Other Essays on Political Economy · 1862
Meaning & context

Consumption is judged by what it ultimately does for human life, making economic activity a means rather than an end in itself within Ruskin’s argument.

Source details

Unto This Last, fourth essay; Project Gutenberg #36541. The line follows Ruskin’s distinction between production and consumption and retains the nineteenth-century political-economy setting.

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If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself.
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“If a man knows the wherefore of his existence, then the manner of it can take care of itself.”

Friedrich Nietzsche · The Twilight of the Idols · 1889
Meaning & context

A sufficiently clear reason for living or acting can reorganize how difficulty is endured, because purpose supplies direction before every practical detail has been solved.

Source details

The Twilight of the Idols, “Maxims and Missiles,” maxim 12, Anthony M. Ludovici translation, Project Gutenberg #52263. This is Nietzsche’s represented wording; later paraphrases such as “He who has a why…” should not be silently substituted for it.

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What am I? A part of the infinite.
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“What am I? A part of the infinite.”

Leo Tolstoy · My Confession · 1882
Meaning & context

Tolstoy frames the self as finite yet participating in something larger, shifting the question of meaning away from isolated individual duration toward a relation with the infinite.

Source details

My Confession, Leo Wiener translation; the question appears in Tolstoy’s investigation of how finite human life might be related to an infinite reality.

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that we must cultivate our garden.
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“that we must cultivate our garden.”

Voltaire · Candide · 1759
Voice: Fictional character · Candide
Meaning & context

Candide turns away from endless abstract explanation toward concrete shared work, making the garden a practical answer to the suffering and argument that have filled the story.

Source details

Candide, Chapter XXX, Project Gutenberg #19942, uncredited public-domain English translation. Candide says “that we must cultivate our garden” to Pangloss and Martin near the tale’s close after reflecting on the old Turk’s life of work. This is translated fictional dialogue and literary resolution, not Voltaire autobiography or a literal guarantee that work resolves every hardship.

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