“Taxing is an easy business. Any projector can contrive new impositions, any bungler can add to the old.”

—  Edmund Burke

Speech on the Independence of Parliament (1780)

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "Taxing is an easy business. Any projector can contrive new impositions, any bungler can add to the old." by Edmund Burke?
Edmund Burke photo
Edmund Burke 270
Anglo-Irish statesman 1729–1797

Related quotes

Francis Escudero photo
Milton Friedman photo

“On the level of political principle, the imposition of taxes and the expenditure of tax proceeds are governmental functions.”

Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer

"The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits" in The New York Times Magazine (13 September 1970) http://www.colorado.edu/studentgroups/libertarians/issues/friedman-soc-resp-business.html
Context: On the level of political principle, the imposition of taxes and the expenditure of tax proceeds are governmental functions. We have established elaborate constitutional, parliamentary and judicial provisions to control these functions, to assure that taxes are imposed so far as possible in accordance with the preferences and desires of the public — after all, "taxation without representation" was one of the battle cries of the American Revolution. We have a system of checks and balances to separate the legislative function of imposing taxes and enacting expenditures from the executive function of collecting taxes and administering expenditure programs and from the judicial function of mediating disputes and interpreting the law.
Here the businessman — self-selected or appointed directly or indirectly by stockholders — is to be simultaneously legislator, executive and, jurist. He is to decide whom to tax by how much and for what purpose, and he is to spend the proceeds — all this guided only by general exhortations from on high to restrain inflation, improve the environment, fight poverty and so on and on.

Rose Wilder Lane photo
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax photo

“There is Reason to think the most celebrated Philosophers would have been Bunglers at Business; but the Reason is because they despised it.”

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician

Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Reflections (1750), Moral Thoughts and Reflections

Robert T. Kiyosaki photo

“A truly intelligent person welcomes new ideas, for new ideas can add to the synergy of other accumulated ideas.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki (1947) American finance author , investor

Rich Dad Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money-That the Poor and the Middle Class Do Not!

Colin Blackburn, Baron Blackburn photo
Ronald Reagan photo

“You can’t tax business. Business doesn’t pay taxes. It collects taxes.”

Ronald Reagan (1911–2004) American politician, 40th president of the United States (in office from 1981 to 1989)
Robert G. Ingersoll photo

“Can any farmer, mechanic, or scientist find in the New Testament one useful fact?”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

A Thanksgiving Sermon (1897)
Context: Did Christ or any of his apostles add to the sum of useful knowledge? Did they say one word in favor of any science, of any art? Did they teach their fellow-men how to make a living, how to overcome the obstructions of nature, how to prevent sickness—how to protect themselves from pain, from famine, from misery and rags? Did they explain any of the phenomena of nature? Any of the facts that affect the life of man? Did they say anything in favor of investigation—of study—of thought? Did they teach the gospel of self-reliance, of industry—of honest effort? Can any farmer, mechanic, or scientist find in the New Testament one useful fact? Is there anything in the sacred book that can help the geologist, the astronomer, the biologist, the physician, the inventor—the manufacturer of any useful thing?

Related topics