“There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist — the taxidermist leaves the hide.”
“The collection of any taxes which are not absolutely required which do not… contribute to the public welfare, is only a species of legalized larceny.”
“The king employs a considerable part of the tribute in grants of largesse, bestowed by way of banquets or presents, to those whose support consolidates his authority, whereas their defection would endanger it. Do we not see modern government as well using the public funds to endow social groups or classes, whose votes they are anxious to secure? Today the name is different, and it is called the redistribution of incomes by taxation.”
“To tax the community for the advantage of a class is not protection; it is plunder.”
“Can taxation without representation be any worse than it is with it?”
“No nation ever taxed itself into prosperity.”
“The power to tax involves the power to destroy.”
“Avoid falsehoods like the plague except in matters of taxation, which do not count, since here you are not lying to take someone else’s goods, but to prevent your own from being unjustly seized.”
“What at first was plunder assumed the softer name of revenue.”
“The taxing power of government must be used to provide revenues for legitimate government purposes. It must not be used to regulate the economy or bring about social change. We’ve tried that, and surely we must be able to see it doesn’t work.”
“You don’t pay taxes—they take taxes.”
“The Income Tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has.”