Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“All those governments which have a common good in view are rightly established and strictly just.”
- Date
- 4th century BCE
- English wording
- William Ellis — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning of “All those governments which have a common good…”
Political rule is judged by whether it aims at a shared good rather than merely advancing the private advantage of those holding power.
Where does it come from?
Politics: A Treatise on Government, Book III, Chapter VI, William Ellis translation; represented through the 1912 Dent witness / Project Gutenberg #6762. Aristotle distinguishes governments ordered toward the common good from regimes serving rulers’ private advantage; the exact sentence falls before the edition’s Chapter VII heading and therefore belongs to Chapter VI.
