The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don’t know when it’s through if you are a crook or a martyr.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
I have always paid income tax. I object only when it reaches a stage when I am threatened with having nothing left for my old age—which is due to start next Tuesday or Wednesday.
—Noel Coward (1899–1973) English Dramatist, Actor, Composer
Milk the cow, but do not pull off the udder.
—Greek Proverb
No matter how bad a child is, he is still good for a tax deduction.
—U.S. Proverb
In levying taxes and in shearing sheep it is well to stop when you get down to the skin.
—Austin O’Malley (1858–1932) American Aphorist, Ophthalmologist
A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always count on Paul’s support.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish Playwright
The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don’t know when it’s through if you are a crook or a martyr.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
It is important to remember that government interference always means either violent action or the threat of such action. The funds that a government spends for whatever purposes are levied by taxation. And taxes are paid because the taxpayers are afraid of offering resistance to the tax gatherers. They know that any disobedience or resistance is hopeless. As long as this is the state of affairs, the government is able to collect the money that it wants to spend. Government is in the last resort the employment of armed men, of policemen, gendarmes, soldiers, prison guards, and hangmen. The essential feature of government is the enforcement of its decrees by beating, killing, and imprisoning. Those who are asking for more government interference are asking ultimately for more compulsion and less freedom.
—Ludwig von Mises (1881–1973) Austrian-American Economist, Social Philosopher
Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.
—H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American Journalist, Literary Critic
Anyone may so arrange his affairs so that his taxes shall be as low as possible. He is not bound to choose that pattern which best pays the treasury. There is not even a patriotic duty to increase one’s taxes.
—Learned Hand (1872–1961) American Judge, Judicial Philosopher
Of all our natural resources, the first one to be exhausted may be the taxpayer.
—Unknown
Tax reform is taking the taxes off things that have been taxed in the past and putting taxes on things that haven’t been taxed before.
—Art Buchwald (1925–2007) American Humorist, Satirist, Columnist
Why does a slight tax increase cost you two hundred dollars and a substantial tax cut save you thirty cents?
—Peg Bracken (1918–2007) American Author
Taxes and golf are alike, you drive your heart out for the green, and then end up in the hole.
—Unknown
The wisdom of man never yet contrived a system of taxation that would operate with perfect equality.
—Andrew Jackson (1767–1845) American Head of State
It’s getting so that children have to be educated to realize that “Damn” and “Taxes” are two separate words.
—Unknown
The taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might more easily discharge them; but we have many others, and much more grievous to some of us. We are taxed twice as much by our idleness, three times as much by our pride, and four times as much by our folly; and from these taxes the commissioners cannot ease or deliver us by allowing an abatement.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.
—John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist
Every advantage has its tax.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The rope by which the great blocks of taxes are attached to any citizenry is simple loyalty.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
I don’t know of a single foreign product that enters this country untaxed, except the answer to prayer.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
Government lasts as long as the under-taxed can defend themselves against the over-taxed.
—Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) American Art Critic, Historian
The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
In other words, a democratic government is the only one in which those who vote for a tax can escape the obligation to pay it.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
The taxpayer—that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.
—Voltaire (1694–1778) French Philosopher, Author
If we run into such debts as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, and give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; And the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they do now, on oatmeal and potatoes, have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains around the necks of our fellow sufferers; And this is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle in one instance becomes a precedent for a second, that second for a third, and so on ’til the bulk of the society is reduced to be mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering … And the forehorse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Rich bachelors should be heavily taxed. It is not fair that some men should be happier than others.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
I know all those people. I have friendly, social, and criminal relations with the whole lot of them.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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