Named source · c. 350 BCE

Metaphysics Quotes by Aristotle: Context & Meanings

1 quotation linked to Metaphysics by or associated with Aristotle, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

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W. D. Ross — Translator · Ancient Greek → English

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“All men by nature desire to know.”

Aristotle

Meaning & context

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

Source details

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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Translation

W. D. Ross — Translator · Ancient Greek → English

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