It’s usually interesting to find the context for these quotes. In this case the language is a bit obscure, but he seems to have been arguing that taxing both income and sales is a form of double taxation? [1]

This is in a note about a book by Antoine Destutt de Tracy, who was apparently a philosopher who coined the word “ideology.”

Anyway, I guess it’s repeated because it sounds good, but most people don’t care what Jefferson meant and might not agree with his point about double taxation.

[1] https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Jefferson/03-09-02-0...

The cynic in me realizes that white collar criminals of Zuckerberg's stature really only likely serve time if it involves a huge amount of tax evasion. This money keeps Zuckerberg's name off of any official filings, but I don't think there was ever any real threat of him going to jail. So the $5b is, in a way, pure profit.

I'm sure the gov't would be happy to take 5B to let you and I off the hook for white-collar crimes as well. See, perfectly equal!

I'm not sure that we should be taking advice on "impartial justice" from a slaver -- especially one who helped craft one of the most deeply ironic sentences that a slaver has ever crafted in history:

>We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

I only bring this up, because of how jarring the idea of "impartial justice" is in the context of Thomas Jefferson.