“I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality producing so much misery to the bulk of mankind, legislators cannot invent too many devices for subdividing property.. [a] means of silently lessening the inequality of property is to exempt all from taxation below a certain point, and to tax the higher portions of property in geometrical progression as they rise.”

Letter to http://press-pubs.uchicago.edu/founders/documents/v1ch15s32.html James Madison (28 October 1785)
1780s

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 "I am conscious that an equal division of property is impracticable. But the consequences of this enormous inequality pr…" by Thomas Jefferson?
Thomas Jefferson photo
Thomas Jefferson 456
3rd President of the United States of America 1743–1826

Related quotes

James A. Garfield photo

“The divorce between the church and the state ought to be absolute. It ought to be so absolute that no church property anywhere in any State or in the nation should be exempt from equal taxation; for if you exempt the property of any church organization, to that extent you impose a church tax upon the whole community.”

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

Debate (22 June 1874) "A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774 - 1875: Congressional Record, House of Representatives, 43rd Congress, 1st Session" pg 5384 http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/ampage?collId=llcr&fileName=002/llcr002.db&recNum=5395
1870s

Pierre Joseph Proudhon photo

“Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is the exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak.”

Pierre Joseph Proudhon (1809–1865) French politician, mutualist philosopher, economist, and socialist

Source: What is Property? (1840), Ch. V: "Psychological Explanation of the Idea of Justice and Injustice, and the Determination of the Principle of Government and of Right," Part 2: Characteristics of Communism and of Property
Context: Communism is inequality, but not as property is. Property is the exploitation of the weak by the strong. Communism is the exploitation of the strong by the weak. In property, inequality of conditions is the result of force, under whatever name it be disguised: physical and mental force; force of events, chance, fortune; force of accumulated property, &c. In communism, inequality springs from placing mediocrity on a level with excellence. This damaging equation is repellent to the conscience, and causes merit to complain; for, although it may be the duty of the strong to aid the weak, they prefer to do it out of generosity, — they never will endure a comparison. Give them equal opportunities of labor, and equal wages, but never allow their jealousy to be awakened by mutual suspicion of unfaithfulness in the performance of the common task.
Communism is oppression and slavery. Man is very willing to obey the law of duty, serve his country, and oblige his friends; but he wishes to labor when he pleases, where he pleases, and as much as he pleases. He wishes to dispose of his own time, to be governed only by necessity, to choose his friendships, his recreation, and his discipline; to act from judgment, not by command; to sacrifice himself through selfishness, not through servile obligation. Communism is essentially opposed to the free exercise of our faculties, to our noblest desires, to our deepest feelings. Any plan which could be devised for reconciling it with the demands of the individual reason and will would end only in changing the thing while preserving the name. Now, if we are honest truth-seekers, we shall avoid disputes about words.
Thus, communism violates the sovereignty of the conscience, and equality: the first, by restricting spontaneity of mind and heart, and freedom of thought and action; the second, by placing labor and laziness, skill and stupidity, and even vice and virtue on an equality in point of comfort. For the rest, if property is impossible on account of the desire to accumulate, communism would soon become so through the desire to shirk.

Adam Smith photo

“Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality.”

Adam Smith (1723–1790) Scottish moral philosopher and political economist

Source: (1776), Book V, Chapter I, Part II, p. 770.
Source: The Wealth of Nations

John Stuart Mill photo
Arthur Young photo

“Small properties, much divided, prove the greatest source of misery that can possibly be conceived, and has operated to such a degree and extent in France, that a law ought certainly to be made to render all division below a certain number of arpens illegal.”

Arthur Young (1741–1820) English writer

Arthur Young (1789), quoted in: Samuel Laing (1842), Notes of a Traveller on the Social and Political State of France, Prussia, Switzerland, Italy and Other Parts of Europe During the Present Century, p. 35
According to Samuel Laing, Arthur Young wrote this "consequently before the sale of the national domains, crown and church estates, and confiscated estates of the noblesse, and before the law of partition of property among all the children became obligatory on all classes of the community... and a few mouths only before a law was passed directly opposed to the principle he recommends — the law abolishing the rights of primogeniture, and making the division of property among all the children obligatory; and which law has been ever since, that is, for nearly half a century, in general and uninterrupted operation."

Franklin D. Roosevelt photo

“The true conservative seeks to protect the system of private property and free enterprise by correcting such injustices and inequalities as arise from it.”

Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945) 32nd President of the United States

Roosevelt here slightly misquotes Thomas Babington Macaulay, who in a speech on parliamentary reform (2 March 1831) asserted: "The voice of great events is proclaiming to us, Reform, that you may preserve."
1930s, Address at the Democratic State Convention, Syracuse, New York (1936)
Context: The true conservative seeks to protect the system of private property and free enterprise by correcting such injustices and inequalities as arise from it. The most serious threat to our institutions comes from those who refuse to face the need for change. Liberalism becomes the protection for the far-sighted conservative.
Never has a Nation made greater strides in the safeguarding of democracy than we have made during the past three years. Wise and prudent men — intelligent conservatives — have long known that in a changing world worthy institutions can be conserved only by adjusting them to the changing time. In the words of the great essayist, "The voice of great events is proclaiming to us. Reform if you would preserve." I am that kind of conservative because I am that kind of liberal.

Walter Rauschenbusch photo
Abraham Lincoln photo

“In a certain sense the liberation of slaves is the destruction of property — property acquired by descent or by purchase, the same as any other property.”

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States

1860s, Second State of the Union address (1862)

George Reisman photo

“If the individual is a means to the ends of the State, so too, of course, is his property. Just as he is owned by the State, his property is also owned by the State.”

George Reisman (1937) American economist

“Why Nazism Was Socialism and Why Socialism Is Totalitarian,” lecture delivered at the Mises Institute’s “The Economics of Fascism: Supporters Summit 2005” in Auburn, Alabama (October 8, 2005) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsaG-pJ_4RA&list=PLOCWSOHhjJPUQ9kkhBKV9js9tFJTPp3yC&index=3&t=0s

John R. Commons photo

Related topics