Law is the perfection of reason implanted in us by nature, which enjoins what should be done, and forbids what we should not do.

Lex est summa ratio insita a natura, quae iubet ea, quae facienda sunt, prohibetque contraria.

Original text (Latin)

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Source, in full

Book I, section 18; J. W. Jones, A Translation of all the Greek, Latin, Italian, and French Quotations which occur in Blackstone's 'Commentaries on the Laws of England', &c. (Philadelphia, PA: T. & J. W. Johnson & Co, 1889) p. 5

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