Inspirational Quotes On Taxes! 150 Famous Quotes On Taxation

Famous Quotes on Taxes

  • “The income tax is a slave tax.” —Unknown
  • “There is no such thing as a good tax.” —Winston Churchill
  • “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” —John Marshall
  • “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.” —Benjamin Franklin
  • “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” —Calvin Coolidge
  • “We have a system that increasingly taxes work and subsidizes nonwork.” —Milton Friedman
  • “The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.” —Albert Einstein
  • “We are all equal but some pay higher tax rates than others.” —Jeff Rich
  • “The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.” —Barry Goldwater
  • “The tax collector must love poor people, he’s creating so many of them.” —Bill Vaugham
  • “If you don’t drink, smoke, or drive a car, you’re a tax evader.” —Thomas S Foley
  • “Every tax or rate, forcibly taken from an unwilling person, is immoral and oppressive.” —Auberon Herbert
  • “The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall.” —Denis Healey
  • “One thing true about all governments, the most reliable records are the tax records.” —V for Vendetta
  • “What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.” —Mark Twain
  • “The problem is not that people are taxed too little, the problem is that government spends too much.” —Ronald Reagan
  • “The best things in life are free, but sooner or later the government will find a way to tax them.” —Unknown
  • “All taxes discourage something. Why not discourage bad things like pollution rather than good things like working or investment?” —Lawrence Summers
  • “Can a people tax themselves into prosperity? Can a man stand in a bucket and lift himself up by the handle?” —Winston Churchill
  • “Don’t forget to pay your taxes this year so the Government can give it to people that don’t work as hard as you.” —Unknown
  • “It is wrong to tax a working person almost to the breaking point, then give it to a person who is able to work, but refuses to.” —Unknown

Funny Tax Quotes

  • “There is no such thing as a good tax.” —Winston Churchill
  • “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” —Calvin Coolidge
  • “Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.” —Herman Wouk
  • “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” —Albert Einstein
  • “There’s nothing wrong with the younger generation that becoming taxpayers won’t cure.” —Dan Bennett
  • “The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.” —Barry Goldwater
  • “I guess I think of lotteries as a tax on the mathematically challenged.” —Roger Jones
  • “America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.” —Dr. Laurence J. Peter
  • “The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.” —John Maynard Keynes
  • “The principle involved here is time-honored and true: and that is it’s your money.” —Robert Dole
  • “The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.” —Will Rogers
  • “The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.” —Will Rogers
  • “[on filing for tax returns] This is too difficult for a mathematician. It takes a philosopher.” —Albert Einstein
  • “The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away.” —John S. Coleman
  • “Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors… and miss.” —Robert A. Heinlein
  • “The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.” —Mark Twain
  • “It is a good thing that we do not get as much government as we pay for.” —Will Rogers
  • “There may be liberty and justice for all, but there are tax breaks only for some.” —Martin A. Sullivan
  • “Congress can raise taxes because it can persuade a sizable fraction of the populace that somebody else will pay.” —Milton Friedman
  • “The taxpayer: that’s someone who works for the federal government, but doesn’t have to take a civil service examination.” —Ronald Reagan
  • “It would be a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their income.” —Benjamin Franklin, “Poor Richard’s Almanac”
  • “Alexander Hamilton started the U.S. Treasury with nothing and that was the closest our country has ever been to being even.” —Will Rogers
  • “When there is an income tax, the just man will pay more and the unjust less on the same amount of income.” —Plato
  • “To force a man to pay for the violation of his own liberty is indeed an addition of insult to injury.” —Benjamin Tucker
  • “Isn’t it appropriate that the month of the tax begins with April Fool’s Day and ends with cries of ‘May Day!’? —Rob Knauerhase
  • “Unquestionably, there is progress. The average American now pays out twice as much in taxes as he formerly got in wages.” —H. L. Mencken
  • “A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.” —G. Gordon Liddy
  • “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least amount of hissing.” —Jean-Baptiste Colbert
  • “I am proud to be paying taxes in the United States. The only thing is I could be just as proud for half of the money.” —Arthur Godfrey
  • “The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects forbids it in the dispensation of the public monies.” —Thomas Jefferson
  • “There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.” —Robert A. Heinlein
  • “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents…” —James Madison
  • “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
  • “The purpose of a tax cut is to leave more money where it belongs: in the hands of the working men and working women who earned it in the first place.” —Robert Dole

Quotes on Taxes from U.S Presidents

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (1789 – 1797) – George Washington

  • “…it is essential that you should practically bear in mind that towards the payment of debts there must be revenue; that to have revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised which are not more or less inconvenient and unpleasant.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (1797 – 1801) – Thomas Jefferson

  • “To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”
  • “This is the tendency of all human governments. A departure from principle becomes a precedent for a second; that second for a third; and so on, till the bulk of society is reduced to mere automatons of misery, to have no sensibilities left but for sinning and suffering… And the fore horse of this frightful team is public debt. Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.”
  • “The purse of the people is the real seat of sensibility. Let it be drawn upon largely, and they will then listen to truths which could not excite them through any other organ.”
  • “The same prudence which in private life would forbid our paying our own money for unexplained projects, forbids it in the dispensation of the public monies.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (1809 – 1817) – James Madison

  • “The power of taxing people and their property is essential to the very existence of government.”
  • “I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents…”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President – Benjamin Franklin

  • “Friends and neighbors complain that taxes are indeed very heavy, and if those laid on by the government were the only ones we had to pay, we might the 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.”
  • “It would be a hard government that should tax its people one-tenth part of their income.”
  • “In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. Chief Justice – John Marshall

  • “The power to tax is the power to destroy.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President – Samuel Adams

  • “If taxes are laid upon us without our having a legal representation where they are laid, we are reduced from the character of free subjects to the state of tributary slaves.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (1897 – 1901) – William McKinley

  • I am a tariff man, standing on a tariff platform.

Tax Quotes from Thomas Paine – Founding Father

  • “If, from the more wretched parts of the old world, we look at those which are in an advanced stage of improvement, we still find the greedy hand of government thrusting itself into every corner and crevice of industry, and grasping the spoil of the multitude. Invention is continually exercised, to furnish new pretenses for revenues and taxation. It watches prosperity as its prey and permits none to escape without tribute.”
  • “What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (1923 – 1929) – Calvin Coolidge

  • “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (1933 – 1945) – Franklin D. Roosevelt

  • “Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors.”
  • “Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (1977 – 1981) – Jimmy Carter

  • “The federal income tax system is a disgrace to the human race.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (1981 – 1989) – Ronald Reagan

  • “The government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.”
  • “We don’t have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven’t taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.”
  • “The taxpayer – that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (1989 – 1993) – George H. W. Bush

  • “Read my lips: No new taxes.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. Vice President (1989 – 1993) – J. Danforth Quayle

  • “Our party has been accused of fooling the public by calling tax increases ‘revenue enhancement’. Not so. No one was fooled.”

Tax Quotes from Presidential Candidate (1996) – Robert “Bob” Dole

  • “The purpose of a tax cut is to leave more money where it belongs: in the hands of the working men and working women who earned it in the first place.”
  • “The principle involved here is time-honored and true: and that is it’s your money.”

Tax Quotes from Presidential Candidate (1996 & 2000) – Steve Forbes

  • “The flat tax would be so simple, you could fill it out on a post card. A post card that would say, in effect, having a wonderful time; glad most of my money is here.”
  • “The politicians say ‘we’ can’t afford a tax cut. Maybe we can’t afford the politicians.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (2001 – 2009) – George W. Bush

  • “I firmly believe the death tax is good for people from all walks of life all throughout our society.”
  • “Let me tell you my thoughts about tax relief. When your economy is kind of ooching along, it’s important to let people have more of their own money.”

Tax Quotes from U.S. President (2008 – Incumbent) – Barack Obama

  • But he understood that dealing with the debt is — his choice of words — ‘always a choice of difficulties.’ He also knew that public servants weren’t elected to do what is easy; they weren’t elected to do what was politically advantageous. It’s our responsibility to put country before party. It’s our responsibility to do what’s right for the future. And that’s what this debate is about.”

Tax Quotes and Sayings about Taxation

  • “Taxation without representation is tyranny.” —James Otis
  • “Capital punishment: The income tax.” —Jeff Hayes
  • “Taxation with representation ain’t so hot either.” —Gerald Barzan
  • “No nation has ever taxed itself into prosperity.” —Rush Limbaugh
  • “The power to tax is the power to destroy.” —John Marshall
  • “Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.” —Calvin Coolidge
  • “What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.” —Thomas Paine
  • “You can’t tax business. Business doesn’t pay taxes. It collects taxes.” —Ronald Reagan
  • “Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.” —Herman Wouk
  • “Taxation is just a sophisticated way of demanding money with menaces.” —Terry Pratchett
  • “The power to tax and spend is restricted by the enumerated powers.” —Rand Paul
  • “The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.” —Albert Einstein
  • “Taxes are paid in the sweat of every man who labors.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • “The income tax created more criminals than any other single act of government.” —Barry Goldwater
  • “If the Lord loveth a cheerful giver, how he must hate the taxpayer!” —John Andrew Holmes
  • “Taxation is the price which civilized communities pay for the opportunity of remaining civilized.” —Albert Bushnell Hart
  • “The difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall.” —Denis Healey
  • “What people really want is fairness. They want people paying their fair share of taxes.” —Barack Obama
  • “Tax reform means, don’t tax you, don’t tax me. Tax that fellow behind the tree.” —Russell Long
  • “The nation should have a tax system that looks like someone designed it on purpose.” —William Simon
  • “When there’s a single thief, it’s robbery. When there are a thousand thieves, it’s taxation.” —Vanya Cohen
  • “I am thankful for the taxes I pay because it means that I’m employed.” —Nancie J. Carmody
  • “You must pay taxes. But there’s no law that says you gotta leave a tip.” —Morgan Stanley
  • “The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away.” —John S. Coleman
  • “Tax rates should never be raised in some brackets without being raised in all brackets.” —Bradley A. Smith
  • “You don’t get gushers of revenue by raising tax rates. You get it through expansion.” —George P. Shultz
  • “The power of taxing people and their property is essential to the very existence of government.” —James Madison
  • “There may be liberty and justice for all, but there are tax breaks only for some.” —Martin Sullivan
  • “Next to being shot at and missed, nothing is quite as satisfying as an income tax refund.” —F.J. Raymond
  • “It is a good thing that we do not get as much government as we pay for.” —Will Rogers
  • “The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.” —Mark Twain
  • “Taxes, after all, are dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.” —Franklin D. Roosevelt
  • “The problem is not that the people are taxed too little. The problem is that government spends too much.” —Ronald Reagan
  • “The only thing that hurts more than paying an income tax is not having to pay an income tax.” —Thomas Dewar
  • “The taxpayer, that’s someone who works for the federal government but doesn’t have to take the civil service examination.” —Ronald Reagan
  • “To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.” —Thomas Jefferson
  • “Every culture has some ritual for joining two people together and making them stay that way, and ours is giving tax breaks.” —Bauvard
  • “Today, it takes more brains and effort to make out the income-tax form than it does to make the income.” —Alfred E. Neuman
  • “The wages of sin are death, but by the time taxes are taken out, it’s just sort of a tired feeling.” —Paula Poundstone
  • “The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to get the most feathers with the least hissing.” —Jean Baptist Colbert
  • “I’m proud to pay taxes in the United States; the only thing is, I could be just as proud for half the money.” —Arthur Godfrey
  • “This is a question too difficult for a mathematician. It should be asked of a philosopher, when asked about completing his income tax form.” —Albert Einstein
  • “One thing is clear: The Founding Fathers never intended a nation where citizens would pay nearly half of everything they earn to the government.” —Ron Paul
  • “An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation.” —John Marshall
  • “We are told that this is an odious and unpopular tax. I never knew a tax that was not odious and unpopular with the people who paid it.” —John Sherman
  • “If you make any money, the government shoves you in the creek once a year with it in your pockets, and all that don’t get wet you can keep.” —Will Rogers
  • “There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him.” —Robert A. Heinlein
  • “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
  • “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
  • “Taxation is the price we pay for failing to build a civilized society. The higher the tax level, the greater the failure. A centrally planned totalitarian state represents a complete defeat for the civilized world, while a totally voluntary society represents its ultimate success.” —Mark Skousen