Independence Day Quotes

As I get older, I have a more profound appreciation for history.  We learn the nuts and bolts, all of the straightforward facts and figures in grade school.  We know the important dates, places and persons for the most part.  Its the finer more intricate stories and events that don't get the publicity I find more appealing and enlightening now that I have some years behind me for perspective.

The Age of Enlightenment was running at full steam as America was solidifying its identify in colonial America. I liken the term "enlightenment" to having a larger perspective in your world view.  The Founding Fathers certainly had that trait in abundance. Jefferson was a polymath; fluent in 5 languages and had a deep interest in philosophy, science and architecture. He was the foreign minister to France and Secretary of State before becoming President. He kept detailed weather records and invented some of the mechanisms he incorporated into his house on Monticello.

John Adams isn't as celebrated at Jefferson but was his equal in many ways. He became a lawyer as a young age. He was a keep observer of the world and utilized his observations in formulating his social views.  He drafted Massachusetts state constitution himself and worked with Jefferson in the formation of the government of the young United States. They both began a correspondence that last almost 15 years and more than 150 letters. If you have the chance, read some of these letters.  They were eerily prophetic on the future of the country. 

I leave you with some quotes from my two favorite Founding Fathers on this Independence Day: Enjoy and remember the people who came before us both in American history and in the recent past both domestic and abroad.

“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”.
-Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)

“I always consider the settlement of America with reverence and wonder, as the opening of a grand scene and design in providence, for the illumination of the ignorant and the emancipation of the slavish part of mankind all over the earth.
-John Adams (1735-1826)

“Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right and a desire to know; but besides this, they have a right, an indisputable, unalienable, indefeasible, divine right to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean of the characters and conduct of their rulers.
-John Adams (1735-1826)

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
-Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)


“I am well aware of the toil and blood and treasure it will cost us to maintain this declaration, and support and defend these states. Yet through all the gloom I see the rays of ravishing light and glory. I can see that the end is worth all the means. This is our day of deliverance.”
-John Adams (1735-1826)


“Equal and exact justice to all men — freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of person under the protection of the habeas corpus; and trial by juries impartially selected, these principles form the bright constellation which has gone before us.”
-Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)