Thomas Hobbes
by John Michael Wright
oil on canvas, circa 1669-1670
26 in. x 21 1/2 in. (660 mm x 546 mm)

Thomas Hobbes, (1588-1679)
Leviathan (1651)

A law of nature, lex naturalis, is a precept, or general rule, found out by reason, by which a man is forbidden to do that which is destructive of his life, or taketh away the means of preserving the same, and to omit that by which he thinketh it may be best preserved. For though they that speak of this subject use to confound jus and lex, right and law, yet they ought to be distinguished, because right consisteth in liberty to do, or to forbear; whereas law determineth and bindeth to one of them: so that law and right differ as much as obligation and liberty, which in one and the same matter are inconsistent.