The words "socialism" or "socialist" are not found in any translations of the Bible I have checked.
DEFINITIONS
Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, 1828
No entry
Bouvier’s Law Dictionary, 1856
No entry
Cyclopaedia of Political Science, Political Economy, and of the Political History of the United States, John Joseph Lalor, 1881
Black’s Law Dictionary, 1st Edition, 1891 and 2nd Edition, 1910
SOCIALISM.
A scheme of government aiming at absolute equality in the distribution of the physical means of life and enjoyment. It is on the continent employed in a larger sense; not necessarily implying communism, or the entire abolition of private property, but applied to any system which requires that the land and the instruments of production should be the property, not of individuals, but of communities or associations or of the government. 1 Mill, Pol. Econ. 248.
The Century Dictionary, an Encyclopedic Lexicon of the English Language, 1895
Black’s Law Dictionary, 4th Edition, 1968
SOCIALISM.
Any theory or system of social organization which would abolish, entirely or in great part, the individual effort and competition on which modern society rests, and substitute for it co-operative action, would introduce a more perfect and equal distribution of the products of labor, and would make land and capital, as the instruments and means of production, the joint possession of the members of the community.
Black’s Law Dictionary, 5th Edition, 1979
No entry
WEX Legal Dictionary
QUOTESSocialist law
Until recently, the USSR and its satellites proclaimed that their socialism was producing an entirely new form of law, not to be judged by or even compared with the older systems. This view was said to be the scientific conclusion of a Marxist analysis. Even in those days, however, the systems' documents looked, on the surface, familiar: constitutions and civil codes many of whose rules bore - at least on paper - a strong resemblance to the traditional provisions.
The USSR's peaceful disintegration into 15 sovereign states has provoked much activity in fashioning new structures. Most of the states by now have a new democratic constitution and are drafting the rest of the legal system. Among the last acts of the old USSR was the enactment of a comprehensive framework of Basic Principles for private law. It was used in Russia as an interim instrument until the Civil Code of November 1994. In time the statute book will probably look much like those of the civil-law German-speaking countries. More problematic is the personnel to run the system, in the shape of lawyers and, above all, of judges who are well-trained, wise, and honest.
From its inception in 1949, the People's Republic of China's declared aim was to attain socialism. It abrogated all earlier legislation and during the next decade much of the formal law appeared inspired by Soviet models. But the 'Great Leap Forward' of 1958 emphasised ideological leadership, law was denigrated and degraded during the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), and it was not until the 1980s that something resembling a recognisable legal system began to appear. Under the 1982 Constitution (see also here), China - despite its size - is not a federation. The People's Congress is the named legislator and the 'executive' is the State Council, although much power remains with the Chinese Communist Party. The pre-Cultural Revolution legal structure has been partly resurrected, and a legal framework of codes enacted. The Basic Principles of Civil Law contain many provisions that would be familiar to Western jurists. The actual functioning of the system, however, is affected by the persistent attitude that makes law subordinate to the decisions of central and local political authorities.
Alexis de Tocqueville:
Friedrich Nietzsche:Democracy extends the sphere of individual freedom, socialism restricts it. Democracy attaches all possible value to each man; socialism makes each man a mere agent, a mere number. Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word: equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
Socialism is the phantastic younger brother of despotism, which it wants to inherit. Socialism wants to have the fullness of state force which before only existed in despotism. ... However, it goes further than anything in the past because it aims at the formal destruction of the individual ... who ... can be used to improve communities by an expedient organ of government.
Mikhail Gorbachev:
Joseph Paul Goebbels:Those who hope that we shall move away from the socialist path will be greatly disappointed. Every part of our program of perestroika … is fully based on the principle of more socialism and more democracy. ... I would like to be clearly understood ... we, the Soviet people, are for socialism. ... We want more socialism and, therefore, more democracy. ... More socialism means more democracy, openness and collectivism in everyday life. … We will proceed toward better socialism rather than away from it. We are saying this honestly, without trying to fool our own people or the world. Any hopes that we will begin to build a different, non-socialist society and go over to the other camp are unrealistic and futile. Those in the West who expect us to give up socialism will be disappointed. ... It’s my conviction that the human race has entered a stage where we are all dependent on each other. No other country or nation should be regarded in total separation from another, let alone pitted against another. That’s what our communist vocabulary calls internationalism and it means promoting universal human values.
George Bernard Shaw:To be a socialist is to submit the I to the thou; socialism is sacrificing the individual to the whole.
Sir Winston Churchill:I also made it quite clear that Socialism means equality of income or nothing, and that under socialism you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly feed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you like it or not. If it were discovered that you had not character enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live you would have to live well.
Alexander Solzhenitsyn:Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance and the gospel of envy.
Socialism of any type leads to a total destruction of the human spirit.
Edgar Wallace Robinson:
Antonio Gramsci:In 1883, a small group of Socialists met in London, announcing their intentions of converting the British economic system from capitalism to socialism. This group chose the name 'Fabian Society.' One of the leading members of the Fabian Society, author George Bernard Shaw, perhaps summed it up best when he said, quote: '... Socialism means equality of income or nothing... under socialism you would not be allowed to be poor. You would be forcibly fed, clothed, lodged, taught, and employed whether you like it or not. If it were discovered that you had not character enough to be worth all this trouble, you might possibly be executed in a kindly manner; but whilst you were permitted to live you would have to live well.'
Ludwig von Mises:Socialism is precisely the religion that must overwhelm Christianity. … In the new order, Socialism will triumph by first capturing the culture via infiltration of schools, universities, churches and the media by transforming the consciousness of society.
Socialism is not in the least what it pretends to be. It is not the pioneer of a better and finer world, but the spoiler of what thousands of years of civilization have created. It does not build, it destroys. For destruction is the essence of it. It produces nothing, it only consumes what the social order based on private ownership in the means of production has created.
Adolf Hitler:The champions of socialism call themselves progressives, but they recommend a system which is characterized by rigid observance of routine and by a resistance to every kind of improvement. They call themselves liberals, but they are intent upon abolishing liberty. They call themselves democrats, but they yearn for dictatorship. They call themselves revolutionaries, but they want to make the government omnipotent. They promise the blessings of the Garden of Eden, but they plan to transform the world into a gigantic post office. Every man but one a subordinate clerk in a bureau. What an alluring utopia! What a noble cause to fight!
Leon Trotsky:National Socialism is what Marxism might have been if it could have broken its absurd and artificial ties with the democratic order.
Norman Thomas:If our generation happens to be too weak to establish Socialism over the earth, we will hand the spotless banner down to our children. The struggle which is in the offing transcends by far the importance of individuals, factions and parties. It is the struggle for the future of all mankind. It will be severe, it will be lengthy. Whoever seeks physical comfort and spiritual calm let him step aside. In time of reaction it is more convenient to lean on the bureaucracy than on the truth. But all those for whom the word ‘Socialism’ is not a hollow sound but the content of their moral life - forward! Neither threats nor persecutions nor violations can stop us! Be it even over out bleaching bones the future will triumph! We will blaze the trail for it. It will conquer! Under all the severe blows of fate, I shall be happy as in the best days of my youth; because, my friends, the highest human happiness is not the exploitation of the present but the preparation of the future.
The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of 'liberalism' they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.