Benjamin Franklin — "In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."
In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes.
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About Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
Polymath Founding Father, diplomat, and Poor Richard's Almanack author who helped draft the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. Closely associated with John Adams (fellow Founder, Massachusetts statesman) and Thomas Jefferson (fellow Declaration drafter). For an intellectual contrast, see Thomas Hutchinson, last royal governor of colonial Massachusetts — Franklin leaked Hutchinson's loyalist correspondence to Boston in 1772 to inflame revolutionary sentiment — Hutchinson represented the colonial-aristocrat crown-loyalty that Franklin's revolution was organized to dismantle.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
No matter your wealth, status, or cleverness, two things will always find you: death and taxes. It's a darkly humorous acknowledgment that human control has hard limits. You can dodge debts, escape enemies, or outlast rivals, but mortality and government collection are inescapable constants. The saying validates the universal frustration with taxation while reminding us that even the most powerful figures throughout history faced the same two certainties.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin wrote this in a 1789 letter to Jean-Baptiste Leroy, just months before his death at 84. As a printer, diplomat, legislator, and postmaster who helped draft the U.S. Constitution, Franklin spent decades navigating civic finance and personal mortality. His practical wit, honed through Poor Richard's Almanack, drove him to distill hard truths into memorable phrases. Having built wealth from nothing, he understood taxation firsthand as both citizen and statesman.
The era
Franklin wrote this in 1789, the year the U.S. Constitution took effect and Washington became president. The new nation wrestled with how to fund itself — tariffs, excise taxes, and Revolutionary War debts were fierce political flashpoints. Meanwhile, the French Revolution was erupting across the Atlantic. Against a backdrop of governments collapsing, rising, and immediately demanding revenue, Franklin's wry remark captured both the permanence of fiscal obligation and the dark certainty every human ultimately shares.
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