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. Benjamin Tucker More Quotes by Benjamin Tucker More Quotes From Benjamin Tucker The right of the majority is absolute. Benjamin Tucker absolutes majority 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. Benjamin Tucker anarchy law men If I can 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. Benjamin Tucker liberty may men There are some troubles from which mankind can never escape .... have never claimed that liberty will bring perfection; they simply say that its results are vastly preferable to those that follow from authority .... As a choice of blessings, liberty is the greater; as a choice of evils, liberty is the smaller. Then liberty always says the Anarchist. No use of force except against the invader. Benjamin Tucker perfection blessing evil 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. Benjamin Tucker government organization doe [T]he State . . . gives idle capital the power of increase, and, through interest, rent, profit, and taxes, robs industrious labor of its products. Benjamin Tucker increase states giving Monopoly and privilege must be destroyed, opportunity afforded, and competition encouraged. This is Liberty's work, and Down with Authority her war-cry. Benjamin Tucker competition opportunity war 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. Benjamin Tucker rome names school 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. Benjamin Tucker invasion democracy men We are here, on earth. Not one of us has any right to the earth. Benjamin Tucker earth One thing, however, is sure, - that in all cases the effort should be to impose all the cost of repairing the wrong upon the doer of the wrong. This alone is real justice, and of course such justice is necessarily free. Benjamin Tucker effort real justice 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. Benjamin Tucker corruption church war The government is a tyrant living by theft, and therefore has no business to engage in any business. Benjamin Tucker theft tyrants government Anarchism may be described as the doctrine that all the affairs of men should be managed by individuals or voluntary associations, and that the State should be abolished..... Nor does the Anarchistic scheme furnish any code of morals to be imposed upon the individual. "Mind your own business" is its own moral law. Interference with another's business is a crime and the only crime, and as such may properly be resisted. Benjamin Tucker mind-your-own-business law men An Anarchist is anyone who denies the necessity and legitimacy of government; the question of his methods of attacking it is foreign to the definition. Benjamin Tucker anarchy definitions government The essence of government is control, or the attempt to control. Benjamin Tucker transcendentalism government essence We are here to let in the light of Liberty upon political superstition. Benjamin Tucker liberty political light The cost of justice can be justly paid only by the invader. Benjamin Tucker invaders cost justice Capitalism is at least tolerable, which cannot be said of Socialism or Communism Benjamin Tucker socialism communism said 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. Benjamin Tucker eugenics rome house
