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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

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 government is a tyrant living by theft, and therefore has no business to engage in any business.

Engage, Government, Theft, Tyrant, Tyrants

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

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

Anarchism is for liberty, and neither for nor against anything else. Anarchy is the mother of co-operation, yes, just as liberty is the mother of order; but, as a matter of definition, liberty is not order nor is Anarchism co-operation. I define Anarchism as the belief in the greatest amount of liberty compatible with equality of liberty; or, in other words, as the belief in every liberty except the liberty to invade.

Except, Liberty, Mother, Order, Words

Laissez Faire was very good sauce for the goose, labor, but was very poor sauce for the gander, capital.

Gander, Labor, Laissez Faire, Poor, Sauce

The right of the majority is absolute.

Absolute, Absolutes, Majority, Right

Government is the assumption of authority over a given area and all within it, exercised generally for the double purpose of more complete oppression of its subjects and extension of its boundaries.

Authority, Double, Government, Liberty, Oppression, Purpose

The Anarchists are simply unterrified Jeffersonian Democrats. They believe that 'the best government is that which governs least,' and that which governs least is no government at all.

Anarchy, Believe, Democrats, Government, Unterrified

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

It will probably surprise many who know nothing of Proudhon save his declaration that 'property is robbery' to learn that he was perhaps the most vigorous hater of Communism that ever lived on this planet. But the apparent inconsistency vanishes when you read his book and find that by property he means simply legally privileged wealth or the power of usury, and not at all the possession by the labourer of his products.

Book, Mean, Power, Privileged, Usury, Wealth

The student of Liberty must constantly endeavor to disassociate his imagination from sanguinary dramas of assassination and revolt.

Drama, Dramas, Imagination, Liberty, Revolt

If the individual has a right to govern himself, all external government is tyranny. Hence the necessity of abolishing the State.

Abolishing, Anarchist, Anarchy, Government, Necessity

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

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

Is not the very beginning of privilege, monopoly and industrial slavery this erecting of the ballot-box above the individual?

Beginning, Individual, Monopoly, Privilege, Slavery, Voting

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

And capital punishment, however ineffective it may be and through whatever ignorance it may be resorted to, is a strictly defensive act, - at least in theory.

Ignorance, May, Punishment, Theory

We are here, on earth. Not one of us has any right to the earth.

Earth, Right

Aggression is simply another name for government. Aggression, invasion, government, are interconvertible terms. The essence of government is control, or the attempt to control. 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, after the manner of the ordinary criminal, or by one man upon all other men, after the manner of an absolute monarch, or by all other men upon one man, after the manner of a modern democracy.

Essence, Manner, Men, Names, Ordinary

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