Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Tucker
Benjamin Ricketson Tuckerwas a proponent, in the 19th century, of American individualist anarchism, which he called "unterrified Jeffersonianism," and editor and publisher of the individualist anarchist periodical Liberty...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth17 April 1854
CityDartmout, MA
CountryUnited States of America
Benjamin Tucker quotes about
government liberty purpose
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.
socialism communism said
Capitalism is at least tolerable, which cannot be said of Socialism or Communism
ignorance punishment may
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.
men individual-choice choices
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.
hate men love-and-hate
Commanded love of all men indiscriminately is an obliteration of distinction between love and hate, and therefore is not love at all.
kings wings leader
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.
acceptance errors lexicographer
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.
children school maintenance
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.
mean answers may
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.
earth
We are here, on earth. Not one of us has any right to the earth.
drama imagination liberty
The student of Liberty must constantly endeavor to disassociate his imagination from sanguinary dramas of assassination and revolt.
blow wages strikes
Thus, the same blow that strikes interest down will send wages up.
people band invasion
And this is the Anarchistic definition of the State: the embodiment of the principle of invasion in an individual, or a band of individuals, assuming to act as representatives or masters of the entire people within a given area.
school rome names
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.