“It would be thought a hard Government that should tax its People one-tenth Part of their Time, to be employed in its Service.”

—  Benjamin Franklin , book Poor Richard's Almanack

Poor Richard's Almanack (1758), “The Way to Wealth”
Poor Richard's Almanack

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 "It would be thought a hard Government that should tax its People one-tenth Part of their Time, to be employed in its Se…" by Benjamin Franklin?
Benjamin Franklin photo
Benjamin Franklin 183
American author, printer, political theorist, politician, p… 1706–1790

Related quotes

James A. Garfield photo

“It is not part of the functions of the national government to find employment for people — and if we were to appropriate a hundred millions for this purpose, we should be taxing forty millions of people to keep a few thousand employed.”

James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)

To B. A. Hinsdale in 1874, as quoted in The Life and Letters of James Abram Garfield: 1831-1877 (1925) by Theodore Clarke Smith, p. 517
1870s

John Marshall photo

“If the States may tax one instrument, employed by the Government in the execution of its powers, they may tax any and every other instrument. They may tax the mail; they may tax the mint; they may tax patent rights; they may tax the papers of the custom house; they may tax judicial process; they may tax all the means employed by the Government to an excess which would defeat all the ends of Government. This was not intended by the American people. They did not design to make their Government dependent on the States. […] If the controlling power of the States be established, if their supremacy as to taxation be acknowledged, what is to restrain their exercising control in any shape they may please to give it? Their sovereignty is not confined to taxation; that is not the only mode in which it might be displayed. The question is, in truth, a question of supremacy, and if the right of the States to tax the means employed by the General Government be conceded, the declaration that the Constitution and the laws made in pursuance thereof shall be the supreme law of the land is empty and unmeaning declamation.”

John Marshall (1755–1835) fourth Chief Justice of the United States

17 U.S. (4 Wheaton) 316, 432-433
McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)

Ja'far al-Sadiq photo

“Everything has its tax and the tax of knowledge is to teach its people.”

Ja'far al-Sadiq (702–765) Muslim religious person

Eighth Infallible Sayings: Golden sayings of Imam Ja'far al-Sadiq (AS) http://www.ezsoftech.com/islamic/infallible8.asp
Regarding Knowledge & Wisdom, General

“It's hard to watch and it should be hard to watch. It should frighten people, and if it's done that, it's done its job.”

Karen Meagher British actress

Auditioning for the Apocalypse (1984)

Henry George photo

“To prevent government from becoming corrupt and tyrannous, its organization and methods should be as simple as possible, its functions be restricted to those necessary to the common welfare, and in all its parts it should be kept as close to the people and as directly within their control as may be.”

Henry George (1839–1897) American economist

Source: Social Problems (1883), Ch. 17 : The Functions of Government

Clarence Darrow photo

“The nation that would to-day disarm its soldiers and turn its people to the paths of peace would accomplish more to its building up than by all the war taxes wrung from its hostile and unwilling serfs.”

Clarence Darrow (1857–1938) American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union

Source: Resist Not Evil (1904), p. 27

“One of the core values of libertarianism is the right of people to keep all the fruits of their labor. No taxes are fair. All taxes are, at their root, immoral because they involve the use of force to take money from people, money that rightfully belongs to them, and give it to others. That is why libertarians would fund most government services with voluntary user fees.”

R. Lee Wrights (1958–2017) American gubernatorial candidate

2012, " The Fair Tax Isn't Fair, It's a Farce http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=7101"

Herbert Hoover photo

“Bureaucracy is ever desirous of spreading its influence and its power. You cannot extend the mastery of the government over the daily working life of a people without at the same time making it the master of the people's souls and thoughts.”

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) 31st President of the United States of America

The New Day: Campaign Speeches of Herbert Hoover (1928), Campaign speech in New York (22 October 1928)
Context: Bureaucracy is ever desirous of spreading its influence and its power. You cannot extend the mastery of the government over the daily working life of a people without at the same time making it the master of the people's souls and thoughts. Every expansion of government in business means that government in order to protect itself from the political consequences of its errors and wrongs is driven irresistibly without peace to greater and greater control of the nation's press and platform. Free speech does not live many hours after free industry and free commerce die.

“The Government cannot afford to have a country made up entirely of rich people, because rich people pay so little tax that the Government would quickly go bankrupt. This is why Government men always tell us that labor is man's noblest calling. Government needs labor to pay its upkeep.”

Russell Baker (1925–2019) writer and satirst from the United States

"Lost Labor Love" (p.172)
So This Is Depravity (1980)

“Do you work for the government, any government?”
"I pay taxes, which means I work for the government, part of the time. Yes.”

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer

Source: My Name is Legion

Related topics