Death, taxes and depending on (someone / something) for absolutely nothing.
what does it means? (for absolutely nothing)
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What is the source of this quote? Is there any more context?– James KDec 2, 2019 at 4:27
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3 Answers
It is an old joke turned into an insult.
The joke typically goes something like this: The only constants of the universe are death, taxes, and (fill in the blank with a funny constant).
In this case the person is insulting someone by saying they can and will never be able to depend on the specific person they are talking about.
So in full the statement means something like this: "The 3 things that will never change in this universe are death, taxes, and my inability to count on you for anything"
I might be wrong, but I think that, given the mention to 'death and taxes' (it's said that these are the only things one can be sure of, because they always come) the person speaking wants to indicate that being totally independent from his/her interlocutor ('depending on you for absolutely nothing') is in the same line of certainty as death and taxes. It creates a parallel by placing them all in line in the same sentence, so the equivalence is implied. Something like saying 'as sure as death will eventually come to every living being I don't (or will not, in the future) depend on you for anything.
Without more context, it's somewhat difficult to say for certain.... but, in general, "for absolutely nothing" would generally mean the abscence/lack of dependence on someone else (for any need, purpose or otherwise).
To compare, a child can be said to depend on their parents for food and shelter. In other words, children require support from their parents - in the form of their parents providing food and shelter.
