Thomas Jefferson Quotes
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.
Jefferson had deliberately modified John Locke’s phrase “life, liberty and property.
Thomas Jefferson, 1743-1826, 3rd President of the United States (Democratic Republican, VA), Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
The preamble to this declaration of womens’ rights cleverly beginy s with the words of the Declaration of Independence with the single change that “all men” is replaced with “all men and women.” The message was clear. If the founders had a moral right and duty to revolt for these objectives women would be justified and duty bound to make similar efforts. That message terrified many men of the era.
This was written and adopted by Vermont a decade before the United States Constitution the ideas for which were in existence in America before the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.
The opening line of the North Vietnamese Declaration of Independence was a quotation of Thomas Jefferson’s in the American Declaration of Independence. What is even more interesting is that Ho Chi Minh who wrote it asked for and received help in checking his translation from an American agent of the OSS---Office of Strategic Service, precursor to the CIA. While Ho adopted much from the American Democratic concepts, he did not include free elections of multiple party candidates, freedom of speech, travel, or many other basics.
It was drafted by John Adams. 9 Years later the French in their Revolution used the first clause in their Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen—See Quotation 602404 For an opposite point of view see Quotation 635927.
Jefferson and some of the other Founding Fathers saw the American experiment as having implications for the whole world. To Jefferson, the Declaration of Independence was not just for Americans but ideally for all mankind.
Those who support the right of the individual woman to use contraception or have an abortion cite this quotation to illustrate this early statement of the right of a person to have control over his or her own body.
Thomas Jefferson was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He had previously served as the second vice president of the United States under John Adams between 1797 and 1801. The principal author of the Declaration of Independence, Jefferson was a proponent of democracy, republicanism, and individual rights, motivating American colonists to break from the Kingdom of Great Britain and form a new nation; he produced formative documents and decisions at both the state and national levels.
