Noun
state of nature (plural states of nature)
(philosophy, religion, law) The way that people lived before there was any organized society.
Antonym: civil society
In the state of nature profit is the measure of right. Thomas Hobbes
All men have a right to remain in a state of nature as long as they please; and in case of intolerable oppression, civil or religious, to leave the society they belong to, and enter into another. Samuel Adams
Most of what we strive for in our modern life uses the apparatus of goal seeking that was originally set up to seek goals in the state of nature. Richard Dawkins
States in the world are like individuals in the state of nature. They are neither perfectly good nor are they controlled by law. Kenneth Waltz
I am not going to claim that modern anarchism has any direct relation to Roman jurisprudence; but I do claim that it has its basis in the laws of nature rather than in the state of nature. Herbert Read
If man in the state of nature be so free, as has been said; if he be absolute lord of his own person and possessions, equal to the greatest, and subject to no body, why will he part with his freedom, this empire, and subject himself to the dominion and control of any other power? John Locke