The fact that natural-law theorists derive from the very nature of man a fixed structure of law independent of time and place, or of habit or authority or group norms, makes that law a mighty force for radical change.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
It is one thing for the human mind to extract from the phenomena of nature the laws which it has itself put into them; it may be a far harder thing to extract laws over which it has no control.
We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature.
The law in question asserts, that the quantity of force which can be brought into action in the whole of Nature is unchangeable, and can neither be increased nor diminished.
Law is vulnerable to the winds of intellectual or moral fashion, which it then validates as the commands of our most basic concept.
The rule of law in place of force, always basic to my thinking, now takes on a new relevance in a world where, if war is to go, only law can replace it.
We may brave human laws, but we cannot resist natural ones.
I think that the 'laws of nature' are also prone to evolve; I think they are more like habits than laws.
It is absolutely impossible to transcend the laws of nature. What can change in historically different circumstances is only the form in which these laws expose themselves.
The laws of nature are structured so that we grow and change, and get to experience the full spectrum of biological existence.
The natural law is, in essence, a profoundly 'radical' ethic, for it holds the existing status quo, which might grossly violate natural law, up to the unsparing and unyielding light of reason.