Tax Day Quotations

In honor of our beloved tax day, here are some quotations on the subject...

Congress can raise taxes because it can persuade a sizable fraction of the populace that somebody else will pay.--Milton Friedman

The point to remember is that what the government gives it must first take away.--John S. Coleman

Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today.--Herman Wouk

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation.--Dr. Laurence J. Peter

There is no such thing as a good tax.--Winston Churchill

To force a man to pay for the violation of his own liberty is indeed an addition of insult to injury.--Benjamin Tucker

Collecting more taxes than is absolutely necessary is legalized robbery.--Calvin Coolidge

 Taxes may be levied for public necessity, but beyond this “to impose them upon the common folk without cause is tyrannical extortion.”--John Calvin

"To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical." --Thomas Jefferson

"To lay taxes to provide for the general welfare of the United States, that is to say, 'to lay taxes for the purpose of providing for the general welfare.'For the laying of taxes is the power, and the general welfare the purpose for which the power is to be exercised. They are not to lay taxes ad libitum for any purpose they please; but only to pay the debts or provide for the welfare of the Union." --Thomas Jefferson

"What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue." --Thomas Paine

"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."--Thomas Paine

“Taxation: how the sheep are shorn.”--Edward Abbey

   “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