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Benjamin Tucker Biography

Benjamin Tucker

Benjamin Ricketson Tucker (/ˈtʌkər/; April 17, 1854 – June 22, 1939) was a 19th century proponent of American individualist anarchism, which he called "unterrified Jeffersonianism," and editor and publisher of the individualist anarchist periodical Liberty.

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Benjamin Tucker Quotes

The State is said by some to be a necessary evil; it must be made unnecessary.

Anarchy, Evil, Necessary, Said, Unnecessary

Anarchism does not repudiate the right of ownership, but it has a conception thereof sufficiently different from [others'] to include the possibility of an end of that social organization which will arise, not out of the ruins of government, but out of the transformation of government into voluntary association for defence.

Different, Government, Include, Organization, Repudiate, Ruins

Such security is equal liberty. But it is not necessarily equality in the use of the earth.

Equality, Liberty, Security, Use

In times past. . . it was my habit to talk glibly of the right of man to land. It was a bad habit, and I long ago sloughed it off. Man's only right to land is his might over it. If his neighbor is mightier than he and takes the land from him, then the land is his neighbor's, until the latter is dispossessed by one mightier still.

Latter, Long Ago, Men, Neighbor, Past, Sloughed

If I go through life free and rich, I shall not cry because my neighbor, equally free, is richer. Liberty will ultimately make all men rich; it will not make all men equally rich. Authority may (and may not) make all men equally rich in purse; it certainly will make them equally poor in all that makes life best worth living.

Liberty, May, Men, Neighbor, Purse, Worth

The two principles referred to are Authority and Liberty, and the names of the two schools of Socialistic thought which fully and unreservedly represent one or the other of them are, respectively, State Socialism and Anarchism. Whoso knows what these two schools want and how they propose to get it understands the Socialistic movement. For, just as it has been said that there is no half-way house between Rome and Reason, so it may be said that there is no half-way house between State Socialism and Anarchism.

Anarchism, Authority, Names, Referred, School, Two

War and Authority are companions; Peace and Liberty are companions.

Authority, Liberty, Peace, War

In the matter of the maintenance and rearing of children the Anarchists would neither institute the communistic nursery which the State Socialists favor nor keep the communistic school system which now prevails.

Children, Maintenance, Rearing, School, System

First, then, State Socialism, which may be described as the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by the government, regardless of individual choice.

Described, Individual Choice, Men, Regardless, Swag

Capitalism is at least tolerable, which cannot be said of Socialism or Communism

Communism, Said, Socialism, Tolerable

The moment one abandons the idea that he was born to discover what is right and enforce it upon the rest of the world, he begins to feel an increasing disposition to let others alone and to refrain even from retaliation or resistance except in those emergencies which immediately and imperatively require it.

Begins, Emergencies, Enforce, Ideas, Let, World

The moment that justice must be paid for by the victim of injustice it becomes itself injustice.

Justice, Moment, Moments, Paid, Victim

Almost the only persons who may be said to comprehend even approximately the significance, principles, and purposes of Socialism are the chief leaders of the extreme wings of the Socialistic forces, and perhaps a few of the money kings themselves.

Kings, Leader, Perhaps, Purposes, Said, Wings

It is because peaceful agitation and passive resistance are effective that I uphold them, and it is because force strengthens tyranny that I condemn it. War and Authority are companions; Peace and Liberty are companions. It is foolish in the extreme not only to resort to force before necessity compels, but especially to madly create the conditions that will lead to this necessity.

Lead, Madly, Necessity, Passive Resistance, Peaceful, War

He who attempts to control another is a governor, an aggressor, an invader; and the nature of such invasion is not changed, whether it is made by one man upon another man. . . or by all other men upon one man, after the manner of a modern democracy.

Democracy, Governor, Invasion, Men, Modern

The Anarchists answer that the abolition of the State will leave in existence a defensive association, resting no longer on a compulsory but on a voluntary basis, which will restrain invaders by any means that may prove necessary.

Anarchists, Answers, Defensive, Invaders, May, Mean

The main question. . . is not what motive inspired the law, but what it will be possible for men of bad motive to do with the law.

Anarchy, Inspired, Law, Men, Question

But which is the State's essential function, aggression or defence, few seem to know or care.

Aggression, Aquariums, Care, Defence, Essentials, Know

The makers of dictionaries are dependent upon specialists for their definitions. A specialist's definition may be true or it may be erroneous. But its truth cannot be increased or its error diminished by its acceptance by the lexicographer. Each definition must stand on its own merits.

Acceptance, Definitions, Errors, Lexicographer, Specialists, True

Murder is an offensive act. The term cannot be applied legitimately to any defensive act.

Act, Defensive, Murder, Offensive, Term

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