This is the opening sentence of Aristotle’s Metaphysics, Book I (Bekker 980a21), and it is genuinely his. The famous English is W. D. Ross’s, from his translation published as Vol. VIII, Metaphysica, of the Clarendon Press Works of Aristotle Translated into English (Oxford, 1908; second edition 1928) — the Greek reads “Πάντες ἄνθρωποι τοῦ εἰδέναι ὀρέγονται φύσει.”
“All men by nature desire to know” Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book I, 980a21, trans. W. D. Ross (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908; 2nd ed. 1928)
Can you use it?
✓ Free to use in the US, including commercially — the Ross English quoted here was published in 1908. Ross’s translation may still be in copyright elsewhere, including in the UK where it was first published (he died in 1971), so keep the credit; a short quotation with attribution is normal practice.
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In context
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Provenance
The source
Work
Metaphysics, Book I (Α), 980a21 — the opening sentence
Author & language
Aristotle, in Greek, 4th century BC
Translation
W. D. Ross, in The Works of Aristotle Translated into English, Vol. VIII: Metaphysica (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908; 2nd ed. 1928)
Attribution
Verified — located in the work and in a named translation
“All men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight.”
Metaphysics, Book I, 980a21
Ross’s rendering of the first lines of Book I. The eight famous words are only the claim; the sentence that follows is Aristotle’s evidence for it — that we enjoy looking at things quite apart from any use we get out of them.
The line sits in Wikiquote’s sourced Aristotle material, placed at Metaphysics Book I, 980a.21 ↗, with the variant “All men by nature desire knowledge.” noted alongside it. It appears in no Misattributed or Disputed section there.
Aristotle’s Greek has been out of copyright since long before copyright existed, and the English quoted here is safe too: Ross’s Metaphysica was first published by the Clarendon Press in 1908 ↗, with a second edition in 1928 ↗. The widely circulated online transcriptions do not say which of the two they follow — Wikisource’s own talk page ↗ records that the text came from classics.mit.edu with “no information on edition” — but both candidate editions predate 1931, so the US public-domain status is the same either way. Later renderings are a different matter: a modern translation of the same sentence is its own copyrighted work.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
What actually gets misquoted here
Nobody credits this line to the wrong philosopher — it really is the first thing you read in the Metaphysics. The slippage is in the English, and it is worth naming, because the version everyone quotes belongs partly to a translator.
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WordingW. D. Ross, the translator translator’s English
“All men by nature desire to know” is Ross’s phrasing, not a neutral transcript of Aristotle. Quote the same Greek from Hugh Tredennick’s Loeb translation and you get “All men naturally desire knowledge” ↗ — identical sentence, different quotation. The famous rhythm is an English artefact.
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Variant“All men by nature desire knowledge” circulating variant
A hybrid of the two renderings circulates widely, and Wikiquote lists it as a variant ↗ next to the Ross wording. It is not wrong in substance, but it matches no single standard translation of the opening line.
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ContextThe eight-word quote card trimmed
Cut to its first clause the line reads as encouragement. In Aristotle it is the opening move of an argument, and the evidence arrives immediately: the next clause ↗ is that we love our senses for themselves, “apart from their usefulness.” That is an empirical claim about curiosity, not a motivational one.
✓The verdict: authentically Aristotle, the first sentence of the Metaphysics ↗ — just remember that the eight words you can recite are W. D. Ross’s English for them.
Context
Why it endures
It is the best possible first sentence, and it is doing real work. Aristotle is not cheerleading for education; he asserts something about human nature and produces his evidence in the same breath — that we love our senses for their own sake, sight above all, whether or not they are useful to us. Curiosity, on this account, is not a virtue you acquire but a fact about the animal.
There is a nice irony in it being the opening line of the Metaphysics, because the book is not really a book. Aristotle never used that title, and the Stanford Encyclopedia notes the treatise we read was assembled by a later editor ↗ out of various smaller selections of his work. Someone else decided which sentence goes first.
Curiosity, for Aristotle, is not a virtue you acquire. It is a fact about the animal.
Read the full story
Ross’s translation is why the line sounds the way it does in English. His Metaphysica became the default English Aristotle, reprinted, anthologised and quoted until the phrasing stopped looking like anyone’s choice at all. That is the ordinary fate of a great translator: the words get credited to the author.
The sentence has carried a fair amount of scholarship on its back. Jonathan Lear took his title straight from it for Aristotle: The Desire to Understand (Cambridge University Press, 1988 ↗), and medieval philosophers had already spent a long time arguing over whether the claim is literally true of all people.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
384–322 BC · Greek philosopher, founder of the Lyceum
Aristotle arrived at Plato’s Academy in Athens around the age of seventeen and stayed until his late thirties, earning from Plato the nickname “mind of the school.” He later tutored the young Alexander of Macedon from 343 BC, then returned to Athens and, barred as a foreigner from owning property, rented the buildings known as the Lyceum, where he taught and researched for twelve years. The Metaphysics came out of that school — and its first line is the most quoted sentence he ever opened a book with.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Primary source
Aristotle. Metaphysics, Book I, 980a21. Translated by W. D. Ross. In The Works of Aristotle Translated into English, edited by J. A. Smith and W. D. Ross, vol. 8, Metaphysica. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908 (2nd ed. 1928).
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘All men by nature desire to know’?” Last verified 29 Jul 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/all-men-by-nature-desire-to-know/