Of taxes and feathers

Now that you have had a few days to recover from the noble duty of paying your taxes, please contemplate the poetic motto of a famous tax collector.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert

Minister of Finances of France from 1665 to 1683 under the rule of King Louis XIV

"The art of taxation consists in so plucking the goose as to obtain the largest amount of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing"