Experience [has] shown that, even under the best forms [of government],those entrusted with power have, in time and by slow operations, pervertedit into tyranny. Thomas Jefferson

Observe that any social movement which begins by redistributing income,ends up by distributing sacrifices. –Ayn Rand
Most of the presidential candidates’ economic packages involve ‘tax breaks,’which is when the government, amid great fanfare, generously decides notto take quite so much of your income. In other words, these candidates aretrying to buy your votes with your own money.–Dave Barry (1992)
Small men seeking great wealth or power have too often and too long turnedeven the highest levels of public service into mere personal opportunity. Senator Barry Goldwater, 1964
[Taxation is legal plunder] if the law benefits one citizen at theexpense of another by doing what the citizen himself cannot do withoutcommitting a crime. –Frederic Bastiat
Now since man is naturally inclined to avoid pain – and sincelabor is pain in itself – it follows that man will resort to plunderwhenever plunder is easier than work. History shows this quite clearly.And under these conditions, neither religion nor morality can stop it.It is evident, then, that the proper law (government) is to use thepower of its collective force to stop this fatal tendency to plunderinstead of work. All the measures of the law should protect propertyand punish plunder. –Frederic Bastiat
In our America, most people still believed in the power of a better tomorrow. So together, we got the government off the backs of the American people. Wecreated millions of new jobs for Americans at all income levels. We cut taxesand freed the people from the shackles of too much government. As a result,the economy burst loose in the longest peacetime expansion ever. We broughtAmerica back — bigger and better than ever.– Ronald Reagan (1986), in Growth, Opportunity, Prosperity: Setting the Record Straight on the 80s
The income-tax return has made more liars out of Americans thanthe golf scorecard.–Will Rogers

Look at the United States. There is no country in the world where thelaw is kept more within its proper domain: the protection of everyperson’s liberty and property. –Frederic Bastiat, commenting on the United States of the past.
“The greatest good for the greatest number.”… Every dictator whoever lived has justified the enslavement of his people on the theory ofwhat was good for the majority.- Ronald ReaganIf you think health care is expensive now, wait until yousee what it costs when it’s free.. –P.J. O’Rourke
When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the firstthings to be bought and sold are legislators. –P.J. O’Rourke
Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politicswon’t take an interest in you. –Pericles (430 B.C.)
Prohibition only drives drunkenness behind doors and into dark places,and does not cure it, or even diminish it. –Mark Twain (1866)
Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress.But I repeat myself. –Mark Twain
Talk is cheap-except when Congress does it. The government is like a baby’salimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility atthe other. –Ronald Reagan

There is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.–Mark TwainThe income tax is clearly an immoral tax. It basically says that aperson’s productive capacity belongs to the state, and [the state] willdecide how much of what he earns he can keep. David Kelley