Kant had distinguished between being obliged to do something as a means to something else and being obliged 'immediately'. Kant says that moral laws 'command absolutely (not only hypothetically on the presupposition of other empirical ends)'. What Kant says about the categorical imperative is closely linked with his accounts of acting from duty. Kant states the supreme formal principle of the will in the following terms: "Act only on that maxim through which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law". A maxim, Kant says, is "a subjective principle of action". By this he means a rule of action a man follows as part of his own policy of living, whatever rules of living other people may have. Maxims are contrasted by Kant with laws, which are objectively valid for all rational beings. A maxim is mine or his, a law applies to everyone.