Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors.
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) American Head of State, Lawyer
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
What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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
Taxes are the sinews of the state.
—Cicero (106BCE–43BCE) Roman Philosopher, Orator, Politician, Lawyer
An income tax form is like a laundry list-either way you lose your shirt.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Comedian, Radio Personality
The thing generally raised on city land is taxes.
—Charles Dudley Warner (1829–1900) American Essayist, Novelist
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
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
Death and taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them!
—Margaret Mitchell (1900–49) American Novelist, Journalist
When making out your income tax, it’s better to give than to deceive.
—Arnold Glasow (1905–98) American Businessman
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 Whisky Distiller
As the general rule in constitutional states liberty is a compensation for the heaviness of taxation, and in despotic states the equivalent for liberty is the lightness of taxation.
—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
The genius of our ruling class is that it has kept a majority of the people from ever questioning the inequity of a system where most people drudge along, paying heavy taxes for which they get nothing in return.
—Gore Vidal (1925–48) American Novelist, Essayist, Journalist, Playwright
The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.
—Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born Physicist
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
Our tax code is so long it makes War and Peace seem breezy.
—Steven LaTourette (1954–2016) American Politician, Lawyer
I know all those people. I have friendly, social, and criminal relations with the whole lot of them.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
The suppression of unnecessary offices, of useless establishments and expenses, enabled us to discontinue our internal taxes. These, covering our land with officers, and opening our doors to their intrusions, had already begun that process of domiciliary vexation which, once entered, is scarcely to be restrained from reaching, successively, every article of property and produce.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
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) Greek Philosopher, Mathematician, Educator
When there’s a single thief, it’s robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, it’s taxation.
—Unknown
It’s getting so that children have to be educated to realize that “Damn” and “Taxes” are two separate words.
—Unknown
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
The taxpayer: Someone who works for the government but doesn’t have to take a civil service examination.
—Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American Head of State
Our Founding Fathers objected to taxation without representation. They should see it today with representation.
—Anonymous
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
The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest possible amount of feathers with the smallest possible amount of hissing.
—Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619–83) French Statesman
There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program—your tax-dollar will go further.
—Wernher von Braun (1912–77) American Aerospace Engineer
The imposition of taxes has its limits. There is a maximum which cannot be transcended. Suppose the citizen to be taxed by the general government to the utmost extent of his ability, or a thing as much as it can possibly bear, and the state imposes a tax at the same time, which authority is to take it?
—Henry Clay (1777–1852) American Politician
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