The Declaration of Independence was formed by the representatives of American liberty from thirteen states… Now, my countrymen, if you have been taught doctrines which conflict with the great landmarks of the Declaration of Independence, if you have listened to suggestion which would take from its grandeur, and mutilate the symmetry of its proportions… let […]
Declaration of Independence Quotes
Is it to be understood that the principles of the Declaration of Independence bear no relation to half of the human race?
“We hold these Truths to be self-evident… ” which is a gracious, Jeffersonian, way of saying, “Any idiot ought to be able to understand this.”
If the American Revolution had produced nothing but the Declaration of Independence, it would have been worth while… The beauty and cogency of the preamble, reaching back to remotest antiquity and forward so an indefinite future, have lifted the hearts of millions of men and will continue to do… These words are more revolutionary than […]
The sun of Great Britain will set whenever she acknowledges the independence of America… the independence of America would end in the ruin of England.
What is revolutionary about the Declaration of Independence, then, is not that a particular group of Americans declared their independence under particular circumstances but that they did so by appealing to – and promising to base their particular government on – a universal standard of justice.
It is often forgotten that the document which we know as the Declaration of Independence is not the official act by which the Continental Congress voted in favor of separation from Great Britain. June 7, 1776, Richard Henry Lee, on behalf of the Virginia delegation, submitted to the Continental Congress three resolutions, of which the […]
If the Declaration has not been forgotten, if it has been much criticized, much denounced and much applauded, if it has never lacked “friends” or “enemies,” no doubt one essential reason is that it was an event, or at least the chief symbol of an event of surpassing historical importance, as well as a literary […]
The Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny… The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
We hold these truths to be sacred and undeniable; that all men are created equal and independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent and inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, and liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
