Samuel Johnson Quotes
A hateful tax levied upon commodities, and adjudged not by the common judges of property, but wretches by those to whom excise tax is paid.
The then Commissioners of the Excise received an Attorney General's opinion that the statement was legally actionable, but they were advised not to sue.
Samuel Johnson, 1709-1784, English Writer & Lexicographer, Dictionary Definition of Excise tax, 1755
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The speech was never actually delivered, but instead the Bishop published it. It received wide distribution including in America where it was published by the Maryland Gazette on September 29, 1774.
Tax breaks and deductions had become so prolific and complex that most of the larger corporations paid not only a smaller percentage of taxes than many small businesses, but also paid a smaller amount.
The extravagance of Louis XIV caused the conservative Colbert to raise taxes, always an unpopular move. His response: Marquis de Seignelay
Opposing the ratification of the United States Constitution: Left before it ended.
Samuel Johnson, often referred to as Dr Johnson, was an English writer who made lasting contributions to English literature as a poet, playwright, essayist, moralist, literary critic, biographer, editor, and lexicographer. Religiously, he was a devout Anglican, and politically a committed Tory. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography describes Johnson as "arguably the most distinguished man of letters in English history". He is the subject of James Boswell's The Life of Samuel Johnson, described by Walter Jackson Bate as "the most famous single work of biographical art in the whole of literature".
