Question for FDR fans or scholars?

[OrwellwasRight]

I have been using a quote I found on quotegarden.com that is supposedly attributable to FDR:

"Taxes, after all, are the dues that
we pay for the privilege of membership in an organized society."

I have been corrected and steered to the following quote by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes:

"Taxes are what we pay for civilized society.'' 

My questions are:

Is anyone familar with either quote? Could FDR have been paraphrasing Holmes? Is there perhaps a searchable databse of FDR speeches or quotes through which I might search?

I have looked through several FDR sites (many with lists of his famous quotes) in an unsuccessful attempt to find the quote above.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

[unblock]

1. according to this, the holmes quote is from a 1904 decision

which would predate fdr's political life.

http://www.cocotax.org/tat230.html

[OrwellwasRight]

2. Thanks.

I'm trying to find out if FDR updated the quote or if the quotegarden.com info is just completely baseless.

The IRS website (http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=110483,00.html) includes the Holmes quote, but not the FDR one, which makes me think that the quotegarden source is just wrong. Sad, because I like that one better.

[unblock]

3. here's a link to the fdr quote

i not endorsing the source, just showed up on google.
note they can't spell massachusetts :)

http://www.conservativeforum.org/authquot.asp?ID=859

One sure way to determine the social conscience of a Government is to examine the way taxes are collected and how they are spent. And one sure way to determine the social conscience of an individual is to get his tax-reaction. Taxes, after all, are the dues that we pay for the privileges of membership in an organized society.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oct. 21, 1936 - from a campaign speech delivered in Worcester, Massacheusetts

[OrwellwasRight]

4. Fantastic, thanks.

At least it has something I can attempt to fact check. :-)

[MissWaverly]

5. FDR quote

"Taxes, after all, are the dues we pay for the privilege of membership in an organized society."


President Franklin D. Roosevelt, October 21, 1936










Here's what I found when I did a search. - Miss Waverly

[OrwellwasRight]

6. Thanks.

Can you tell me your source?

[MissWaverly]

7. Sorry

"Taxes, after all, are the dues that we pay for the privilege of membership of an organized society."

This was used in a speech by FDR in Worcester, MA on October 21, 1936
but he may have been quoting DeToqueville

Miss Waverly