"Law is a nothing other than an ordinance of reason for the common good, made and promulgated by the one who has care of the community."
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, I-II, q. 90, a. 4

"For the mother of natural law is human nature, which, even if we were not in any need, would still lead us to desire social companionship. And the mother of civil law is that bond of consent which derives its force from natural law, so that nature may be called the grandmother of civil law."
Hugo Grotius, "Preface," On the Law of War and Peace