Fiscal Policy Quotes

“We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much.”
― Ronald Reagan

“And to preserve their independence, we must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt. We must make our election between economy and liberty, or profusion and servitude. If we run into such debts, as that we must be taxed in our meat and in our drink, in our necessaries and our comforts, in our labors and our amusements, for our callings and our creeds, as the people of England are, our people, like them, must come to labor sixteen hours in the twenty-four, give the earnings of fifteen of these to the government for their debts and daily expenses; and the sixteenth being insufficient to afford us bread, we must live, as they now do, on oatmeal and potatoes; have no time to think, no means of calling the mismanagers to account; but be glad to obtain subsistence by hiring ourselves to rivet their chains on the necks of our fellow-sufferers.”
― Thomas Jefferson, Letters of Thomas Jefferson

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”
― Alexander Fraser Tytler

“I am favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible.”
― Milton Friedman

“Thank you. Since we decided a few weeks ago to adopt the leaf as legal tender, we have, of course, all become immensely rich. [...]

"But we have also," continued the management consultant, "run into a small inflation problem on account of the high level of leaf availability, which means that, I gather, the current going rate has something like three deciduous forests buying on ship's peanut." [...]

"So in order to obviate this problem," he continued, "and effectively revalue the leaf, we are about to embark on a massive defoliation campaign, and...er, burn down all the forests. I think you'll all agree that's a sensible move under the circumstances.”
― Douglas Adams, The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

“The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.”
― Thomas Jefferson

“Lord, the money we do spend on Government and it's not one bit better than the government we got for one-third the money twenty years ago.”
― Will Rogers

“Während der Wissenschaftler stets um den rechten Weg bemüht ist und ihm jeder noch so kleine Fehler ein Dorn im Auge ist, erlaubt sich der Künstler, die ausgetretenen Pfade zu verlassen, die Sache bewusst komplett anders anzupacken und aus den Fehlern zu lernen.”
― Collin Coel, Vertrauen im Investmentgeschäft

“Warren Buffett wird nicht müde zu betonen, dass es an ihm ist, sich selbst die Verwaltung des kleinsten Geldbetrages sehr angelegen sein zu lassen. Und eben darin bekundet sich jenes Verantwortungsbewusstsein, mit dem Staat zu machen ist.”
― Collin Coel, Vertrauen im Investmentgeschäft

“Es reicht, über die Geschäfte des Unternehmens im Bilde zu sein, dank erwiesener Ertragskraft, hoher Kapitalrenditen, niedriger Schulden und exquisiter Produkte beruhigt der Zukunft entgegenzusehen, die Gewissheit zu haben, dass fähige Manager am Drücker sitzen, und in ein Unternehmen zu investieren, das generell hoch im Kurs steht.”
― Collin Coel, Vertrauen im Investmentgeschäft

“MONEY IS IMAGINARY!”
― Clint G. Rogers