“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”
Ironically, Benjamin Franklin died five months later. The letter was sent to his pen-pal of 22 years, Parisian physicist Jean-Baptiste Le Roy. Mr. Franklin was referring to the newly established American Constitution, remarking on whether or not it would prove to be permanent.
Ben Franklin was quoting earlier writers, much like I quote him now (except I’m not a founding father and haven’t revolutionized the world of science).
Seventy-three years prior, playwright Christopher Bullock premiered a play based off of Shakespeare’s “The Taming of the Shrew.” It is there that the famous “death and taxes” quote appears recorded for the first time. Bullock’s play was titled “The Cobler of Preston.” Ten days after it premiered, another playwright premiered a play by the same name at a rival theater in London.
Ten years after the plays, political journalist Daniel Defoe referenced the same quote in “The Political History of the Devil.”
So, if anything, it would appear that recycling lines is just as certain as death and taxes.
Death, taxes and plagiarism. No way around the three.
While this site can’t help you with the latter, I hope it does help cope with your future death and taxes. Life insurance reduces or eliminates the financial uncertainty around death, and the face value of a death payout is not taxable to your beneficiaries.
Thankfully, we can’t plagiarize the underwriting of lives.
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