Ralph Waldo Emerson Quotes About Taxes

• Of all debts, men are least willing to pay their taxes; what a satire this is on government.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Debt, Pay

• Envy is the tax which all distinction must pay.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Envy, Pay, Distinction

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1961). “Journals and Miscellaneous Notebooks of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Volume II: 1822-1826”, p.202, Harvard University Press

• For every benefit you receive a tax is levied.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Taxation, Benefits, Taxes

• What a benefit would the American government, not yet relieved of its extreme need, render to itself, and to every city, village and hamlet in the States, if it would tax whiskey and rum almost to the point of prohibition! Was it Bonaparte who said that he found vices very good patriots? "He got five millions from the love of brandy, and he should be glad to know which of the virtues would pay him as much." Tobacco and opium have broad backs, and will cheerfully carry the load of armies, if you choose to make them pay high for such joy as they give and such harm as they do.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Army, Cities, Government

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ronald A. Bosco, Joel Myerson (2015). “Ralph Waldo Emerson”, p.438, Harvard University Press

• The most attractive class of people are those who are powerful obliquely, and not by the direct stroke: men of genius, but not yetaccredited: one gets the cheer of their light, without paying too great a tax.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Cheer, Powerful, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.238, Harvard University Press

• Time, which shows so vacant, indivisible, and divine in its coming, is slit and peddled into trifles and tatters. A door is to bepainted, a lock to be repaired. I want wood, or oil, or meal, or salt; the house smokes, or I have a headache; then the tax; and an affair to be transacted with a man without heart or brains; and the stinging recollection of an injurious or very awkward word,--these eat up the hours.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Time, Heart, Men

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2012). “Nature and Other Essays”, p.63, Courier Corporation

• I find nothing healthful or exalting in the smooth conventions of society. I do not like the close air of saloons. I begin to suspect myself to be a prisoner, though treated with all this courtesy and luxury. I pay a destructive tax in my conformity.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Air, Luxury, Pay

  Ralph Waldo Emerson, David Mikics (2012). “The Annotated Emerson”, p.280, Harvard University Press

• For splendor, there must somewhere be rigid economy. That the head of the house may go brave, the members must be plainly clad, and the town must save that the State may spend.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Government, House, Brave

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (191?). “Essays”

• Every advantage has its tax.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Advantage, Taxes

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1983). “Essays and Lectures”, p.299, Library of America

• The goof man, in dealing with his people, taxes them with luxury.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Luxury, People

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson (Illustrated)”, p.2920, Delphi Classics

• A man cannot free himself by any self-denying ordinances, neither by water nor potatoes, nor by violent possibilities, by refusing to swear, refusing to pay taxes, by going to jail, or by taking another man's crops or squatting on his land. By none of these ways can he free himself; no, nor by paying his debts with money; only by obedience to his own genius.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Men, Jail, Self

• If you tax too high, the revenue will yield nothing.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Yield, Taxation, Taxes

  Ralph Waldo Emerson (1851). “Essays, lectures and orations”, p.46

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