TAXES QUOTES V

quotations about taxes

The continual whine of lamenting the burden of taxes, however successfully it may be practiced in mixed governments, is inconsistent with the sense and spirit of a republic. If taxes are necessary, they are of course advantageous, but if they require an apology, the apology itself implies an impeachment. Why, then, is man imposed upon, or why does he impose upon himself?

THOMAS PAINE

Rights of Man


Death and taxes and childbirth! There's never any convenient time for any of them!

MARGARET MITCHELL

Gone With the Wind

Tags: Margaret Mitchell


The Largest business in the world is collecting U.S. tax dollars.

JOSEPH BONKOWSKI

Quote Me


Taxes are like hot potatoes that get passed around. The poor man who does not pay for water at home may pay for it when he buys coffee downtown, where tax-paying businesses pass the cost on to consumers.

K. FILIP PALDA

Home on the Urban Range


Taxes are like and unlike the rain, they fall upon the just and the unjust; most hardly upon the just because they will not resort to devious ways to escape the imposition.

PAUL CARUS

The Open Court


The 16th Amendment gives the Federal government a direct claim on the lives of American citizens by enabling Congress to levy a direct income tax on individuals. Until the passage of the 16th amendment, the Supreme Court had consistently held that Congress had no power to impose an income tax.

RON PAUL

speech, April 30, 2009


We don't pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.

LEONA HELMSLEY

attributed, New York Times, July 12, 1989

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I have only one thing to say to the tax increasers: Go ahead, make my day.

RONALD REAGAN

speech, March 13, 1985

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Taxation is just a sophisticated way of demanding money with menaces.

TERRY PRATCHETT

Night Watch


For patriots like me, paying taxes gives a feeling of responsibility, of being part of the fabric of our country, of contributing to the common good.

JOYCE MARCEL

"Life and Taxes", Common Dreams, March 23, 2006


Indoors or out, no one relaxes
In March, that month of wind and taxes,
The wind will presently disappear,
The taxes last us all the year.

OGDEN NASH

"Thar She Blows", Versus

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It puzzles me that the well-off complain so much about taxes when they pay so little relative to their wealth.

MOLLY IVINS

Baltimore Sun, September 5, 2002


The best taxes are such as are levied upon consumptions, especially those of luxury; because such taxes are least felt by the people. They seem, in some measure, voluntary; since a man may choose how far he will use the commodity: They naturally produce sobriety and frugality, if judiciously imposed: And being confounded with the natural price of the commodity, they are scarcely perceived by the consumers. Their only disadvantage is that they are expensive in the levying.

DAVID HUME

Essays


If your biggest tax deduction was bail money, you might be a redneck.

JEFF FOXWORTHY

stand-up routine

Tags: Jeff Foxworthy


I'm proud to be paying taxes to the United States. The only thing is--I could be just as proud for half the money.

ARTHUR GODFREY

attributed, The Executive's Book of Quotations


There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist--the taxidermist leaves the hide.

MORTIMER CAPLAN

attributed, Taxes: The Tax Magazine, 1970


There were really only two men I knew who ever got a laugh out of paying their income taxes. One was cheating the government and getting away with it. The other had a sick sense of humor and would probably have set up a concession stand at the Boston Tea Party and sold sugar cubes and lemon slices.

ERMA BOMBECK

At Wit's End

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We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

Young Statesman

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Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt.

WILLIAM COBBETT

letter, February 10, 1804

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Taxes are the chief business of a conqueror of the world.

GEORGE BERNARD SHAW

Caesar and Cleopatra

Tags: George Bernard Shaw