There are many things which we can afford to forget which it is yet well to learn.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Taxes are what we pay for civilized society
Interpretation
What this quote means
Taxes are essential for maintaining a structured and functional society.
This quote emphasizes the importance of taxes as a necessary contribution that citizens make to support the infrastructure, services, and institutions that facilitate a civilized society. It suggests that taxation is not merely a financial obligation, but a fundamental aspect of civic responsibility and social contract that allows communities to thrive and function harmoniously.
Themes
TaxesSocietyCivilizationResponsibilityContribution
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about civic duty, I might say, 'As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. noted, taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.'
More from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
All quotes βOn the whole, I am on the side of the unregenerate who affirms the worth of life as an end in itself, as against the saints who deny it.
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If you don't know what you want, you will probably never get it.
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Why should you row a boat race? Why endure the long months of pain in preparation for a fierce half hour that will leave you all but dead? Does anyone ask the question? Is there anyone who would not go through all the costs, and more, for the moment when anguish breaks into triumph or even for the glory of having nobly lost? Is life less than a boat race? If a man will give the blood in his body to win the one, will he spend all the might of his soul to prevail in the other?
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
Beware how you take away hope from another human being.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.Read
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