Death and taxes is a common reference to the famous quotation:[1]
Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.
— Benjamin Franklin, in a letter to Jean-Baptiste Le Roy, 1789
However, Franklin's letter is not the origin of the phrase, which appeared earlier in Daniel Defoe's The Political History of the Devil.[2]
Things as certain as death and taxes, can be more firmly believ’d.
And in The Cobbler of Preston by Christopher Bullock (1716)[3]
’Tis impossible to be sure of any thing but Death and Taxes
ReferencesEdit
- ^ Sparks, Jared (1856). The Writings of Benjamin Franklin, Vol. X (1789-1790). Boston: Macmillan. p. 410.
- ^ DeFoe, Daniel (1726). The Political History of the Devil, As Well Ancient as Modern: In Two Parts. London: Black Boy in Pater-noster Row. p. 269.
- ^ Christopher Bullock. The Cobler of Preston, a farce. As it is acted at the Theatre-Royal in Lincoln's-Inn-Field, Fifth Edition. Bladon, London, 1767. p. 21.
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