Arthur Schopenhauer

"The man who starts from the preconceived opinion that the conception of Right must be a positive one, and then attempts to define it, will fail; for he is trying to grasp a shadow, to pursue a spectre, to search for what does not exist. The conception of Right is a negative one, like the conception of Freedom; its content is mere negation. It is the conception of Wrong which is positive; Wrong has the same significance as injury -laesio- in the sidest sense of the term. An injury may be done either to a man's person or to his property or to his honour; and accodingly a man's rights are easy to define: every one has a right to do anything that injures no one else."

On Human Nature, "Government." 1850's