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Men live by production, but the State lives by appropriation. While the haves and the have-nots struggle over the division of existing wealth, it is the business of the State to improve itself at the expense of both; it picks up the marbles while the boys are fighting. That has been the story of men in organized society since the beginning.

— Frank Chodorov The Income Tax: Root of All Evil (1954)

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More quotes by Frank Chodorov

Taxation is nothing but organized robbery, and there the subject should be dropped.

The Economics of Society, Government, and State (1946)

There cannot be a good tax nor a just one; every tax rests its case on compulsion.

All wars come to an end, at least temporarily. But the authority acquired by the state hangs on; political power never abdicates.

Fugitive Essays: Selected Writings of Frank Chodorov (1980)

The State acquires power at the expense of freedom, and because of its insatiable lust for power it is incapable of giving up any of it. The State never abdicates.

Neither thieves nor officials produce a marketable good to offset what they take; they contribute nothing to the purchasing power because they contribute nothing to the general fund of wealth.

Fugitive Essays: Selected Writings of Frank Chodorov (1980)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Frank Chodorov (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.