“The Nicomachean Ethics is only intended as a guide for politicians, and they are only concerned to know what is good, not what goodness means…and in any case one can know what things are good without knowing the analysis of 'good”

—  J. L. Austin

Source: Philosophical Papers (1979), p. 22.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The Nicomachean Ethics is only intended as a guide for politicians, and they are only concerned to know what is good, n…" by J. L. Austin?
J. L. Austin photo
J. L. Austin 23
English philosopher 1911–1960

Related quotes

Paul Auster photo

“For only the good doubt their own goodness, which is what makes them good in the first place. The bad know they are good, but the good know nothing. They spend their lives forgiving others, but they can't forgive themselves.”

Paul Auster (1947) novelist, poet, essayist, screenwriter

Paul Auster, Man In The Dark, New York: Henry Holt and Company, p. 63.
Man In The Dark (2008)

Arthur C. Clarke photo
Jean Jacques Rousseau photo
Eric S. Raymond photo

“Good programmers know what to write. Great ones know what to rewrite”

and reuse
The Cathedral and the Bazaar

Edgar Degas photo

“Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things.”

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French artist

Quoted in Artists on Art: From the XIV to the XX Century, ed. Robert Goldwater (Pantheon, 1945)
quotes, undated

John Steinbeck photo

“For how can one know color in perpetual green, and what good is warmth without cold to give it sweetness?”

Variant: What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.
Source: Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Marilynne Robinson photo
Ayn Rand photo
Charles James Fox photo
Lucille Ball photo

“Knowing what you can not do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that's good taste.”

Lucille Ball (1911–1989) American actress and businesswoman

Quoted in Eleanor Harris, The Real Story of Lucille Ball, ch. 1 (1954)

Related topics