Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
No one can become rich by the efforts of only their toil, but only by the discovery of some method of taxing the labor of others.
—John Ruskin (1819–1900) English Writer, Art Critic
I am thankful for the taxes I pay because it means that I’m employed.
—Nancie J. Carmody
Nothing hurts more than having to pay an income tax, unless it is not having to pay an income tax.
—Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar (1864–1930) Scottish Businessperson
Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
Each citizen contributes to the revenues of the State a portion of his property in order that his tenure of the rest may be secure.
—Montesquieu (1689–1755) French Political Philosopher, Jurist
Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933) American Head of State, Lawyer
Taxing is an easy business. Any projector can contrive new impositions; any bungler can add to the old; but is it altogether wise to have no other bounds to your impositions than the patience of those who are to bear them?
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
Taxes are the sinews of the state.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
No matter how bad a child is, he is still good for a tax deduction.
—U.S. Proverb
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
The tax-exempt privilege is a feature always reflected in the market price of (municipal) bonds. The investor pays for it.
—Louis Brandeis (1856–1941) American Jurist
The POWER of taxing people AND their property IS essential TO the very existence of government.
—James Madison (1751–1836) American Founding Father, Statesman, President
There is no kind of dishonesty into which otherwise good people more easily and frequently fall than that of defrauding the government.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
If a thousand men were not to pay their tax-bills this year, that would not be a violent and bloody measure, as it would be to pay them, and enable the State to commit violence and shed innocent blood. This is, in fact, the definition of a peaceable revolution, if any such is possible.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes non-work.
—Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American Economist
What a benefit would the government render to itself, and to every city, village, and hamlet in the States, if it would tax whiskey and rum almost to the point of prohibition! Was it Bonaparte who said that he found vices very good patriots? “He got five millions from the love of brandy, and he should be glad to know which of the virtues would pay him as much.” Tobacco and opium have broad backs, and will cheerfully carry the load of armies, if you choose to make them pay high for such joy as they give, and such harm as they do.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that still carries any reward.
—John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English Economist
The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.
—Barry Goldwater (1909–98) American Elected Representative, Businessperson, Politician
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
When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.
—Plato (428 BCE–347 BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
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
A citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that a fine is generally much lighter.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Government lasts as long as the under-taxed can defend themselves against the over-taxed.
—Bernard Berenson (1865–1959) Russian-born American Art Historian
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 thing generally raised on city land is taxes.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
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
Every advantage has its tax.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Civil servants and priests, soldiers and ballet-dancers, schoolmasters and police constables, Greek museums and Gothic steeples, civil list and services list—the common seed within which all these fabulous beings slumber in embryo is taxation.
—Karl Marx (1818–1883) German Philosopher, Economist
And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus, that all the world should be taxed.
—The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith
The power to tax is the power to destroy.
—John Marshall (1755–1835) American Judge, Lawyer
Of all our natural resources, the first one to be exhausted may be the taxpayer.
—Unknown
It is easier to start taxes than to stop them. A tax an inch long can easily become a yard long. That has been the history of the income tax. Would not the sales tax be likely to have a similar history (in the U.S.)? … Canadian newspapers report that an increase in the sales tax threatens to drive the Mackenzie King administration out of office. Canada began with a sales tax of 2%…. Starting this month the tax is 6%. The burden, in other words, has already been increased 200% … What the U.S. needs is not new taxes, is not more taxes, but fewer and lower taxes.
—B. C. Forbes (1880–1954) Scottish-born American Journalist, Publisher
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
Count the day when, turning on its axis, this earth imposes no additional taxes.
—Franklin P. Adams (1881–1960) American Columnist, Radio Personality, Author
I like to pay taxes. With them I buy civilization.
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841–1935) American Jurist, Author
Taxes are important. President Bush’s tax proposals leave no rich person behind. Voters approve of President Bush helping the kind of people they wish they were one of.
—Andy Rooney (b.1919) American Writer, Humorist, TV Personality
When there’s a single thief, it’s robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, it’s taxation.
—Unknown
An income tax form is like a laundry list-either way you lose your shirt.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Humorist, Radio Personality
To please universally was the object of his life; but to tax and to please, no more than to love and to be wise, is not given to men.
—Edmund Burke (1729–97) British Philosopher, Statesman
The rope by which the great blocks of taxes are attached to any citizenry is simple loyalty.
—Stephen King (b.1947) American Novelist, Short-Story Writer, Screenwriter, Columnist, Film Director
Milk the cow, but do not pull off the udder.
—Greek Proverb
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
Death and taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them!
—Margaret Mitchell (1900–49) American Novelist, Journalist
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
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 United States has a system of taxation by confession.
—Hugo Black (1886–1971) American Politician, Jurist
Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody’s got to pay for them so they’re a necessary evil.
—Michael Bloomberg (b.1942) American Businessperson, Public Administrator, Entrepreneur
It’s getting so that children have to be educated to realize that “Damn” and “Taxes” are two separate words.
—Unknown
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