Skip to content
Shawords

Quote#Politics & Power

Defence was an afterthought, prompted by necessity; and its…

Quote byBenjamin Tucker · 1854–1939

Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Relation of the State to the Individual (1890).

English (original)

Defence was an afterthought, prompted by necessity; and its introduction as a State function, though effected doubtless with a view to the strengthening of the State, was really and in principle the initiation of the State's destruction. Its growth in importance is but an evidence of the tendency of progress toward the abolition of the State.

— Benjamin Tucker

More from Benjamin Tucker