It was as true as taxes is. And nothing's truer than them.
Source: Mr. Barkis, in David Copperfield, ch. 21 (1849 --50). This remark echoes Benjamin Franklin's famous gloomy observation on the inevitability of taxes. See Franklin on Certainty.
-- Charles Dickens, (Feb 7 1812-1870), English novelist, dramatist; He was one of most prolific and popular English novelists, e.g., A Christmas Carol, 1843 & Tale of Two Cities, 1859.