Benjamin Franklin — "Nothing is certain except death and taxes."
Nothing is certain except death and taxes.
Get This Quote & Author's Image Illustrated On:
Click any product to generate a realistic preview. Up to 3 at a time.
* Initial load can take up to 90 seconds — revising the preview in another color is nearly instant.
Kitchen
Apparel
Other
More from Benjamin Franklin
"Many a man thinks he is buying pleasure, when he is only buying himself trouble."
"The only things certain in life are death and taxes."
"It is the first responsibility of every citizen to question authority."
"For want of a nail the shoe was lost; for want of a shoe the horse was lost; for want of a horse the rider was lost; for want of a rider the battle was lost; for want of a battle the kingdom was lost;…"
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."
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.
Verification
Unverifiable
Found in 1 providers: grok
1 source checked
Understanding this quote
What it means
No matter how carefully you plan or how much wealth or power you accumulate, two things cannot be avoided: you will eventually die, and governments will always take a share of what you earn. The quote cuts through optimism about control and permanence. Nearly everything in life can be negotiated, delayed, or escaped — but mortality and tax obligations are universal constants that apply equally to every person regardless of status.
Relevance to Benjamin Franklin
Franklin wrote this in a November 1789 letter to French scientist Jean-Baptiste Leroy, days after the newly ratified U.S. Constitution granted Congress explicit taxing power. As a Founding Father who helped architect America's fiscal framework, he lived the tension between taxation's necessity and its burden. His decades as a printer, postmaster, and diplomat meant constant encounters with duties and levies. The sardonic wit he perfected in Poor Richard's Almanack made him perfectly suited to distill the insight into one unforgettable line.
The era
In 1789, the infant United States was urgently debating how to fund a national government after a revolution ignited partly by unjust British taxation. The Constitution's taxing clause was itself a hard-fought compromise. Simultaneously, France was erupting in revolution driven largely by crushing tax inequity. Death was equally inescapable: average life expectancy hovered around 35 to 40 years, smallpox and typhoid were uncontrolled, and infant mortality was staggering. Both certainties felt viscerally immediate to Franklin's contemporaries in ways modern readers rarely appreciate.
AI-generated insights based on extensive research and information for context. Factual errors? Email [email protected].