“The difference between death and taxes is death doesn’t get worse every time Congress meets.”
Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist and entertainer
“He said that there was death and taxes, and taxes was worse, because at least death didn’t happen to you every year.”
— Terry Pratchett, book Reaper Man
Source: Reaper Man
Last update Sept. 29, 2023. History
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Terry Pratchett796
English author 1948–2015Related quotes
“But in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes. ”
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
“Death is the most convenient time to tax rich people.”
David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
In Lord Riddell's Intimate Diary of the Peace Conference and After, 1918-1923 (1933)
Later life
Milton Friedman (1912–2006) American economist, statistician, and writer
As quoted in The Times Herald, Norristown, Pennsylvania (1 December 1978)
Context: There's a sense in which all taxes are antagonistic to free enterprise … and yet we need taxes. We have to recognize that we must not hope for a Utopia that is unattainable. I would like to see a great deal less government activity than we have now, but I do not believe that we can have a situation in which we don't need government at all. We do need to provide for certain essential government functions — the national defense function, the police function, preserving law and order, maintaining a judiciary. So the question is, which are the least bad taxes? In my opinion the least bad tax is the property tax on the unimproved value of land, the Henry George argument of many, many years ago.
“In life only three things are certain: death, Adobe updates and taxes.”
Trevor Noah (1984) South African comedian
13 May 2016 <br class="br">The Daily Show <br class="br">Source: Visible at 00:05 #WeakDonald Trump Won't Release His Tax Returns http://www.cc.com/video-clips/cd7iyf/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah--weakdonald-trump-won-t-release-his-tax-returns, CC.com, 13 May 2016.
Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, …
Letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy (13 November 1789) <br class="br">First published in The Private Correspondence of Benjamin Franklin (1817) p.266 https://books.google.de/books?id=jY8EAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA266&dq=constitution <br class="br">The Yale Book of Quotations quotes “‘Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes,” from Christopher Bullock, The Cobler of Preston (1716). The YBQ also quotes “Death and Taxes, they are certain,” from Edward Ward, The Dancing Devils (1724). <br class="br">Epistles
George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States
2000s, 2002, State of the Union address (January 2002)
“We may eliminate death someday but I doubt if we’ll ever eliminate taxes.”
Robert A. Heinlein book I Will Fear No Evil
Source: I Will Fear No Evil (1970), Chapter 24, p. 406