Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness

"Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" is a famous phrase from the United States Declaration of Independence. It talks about three important rights that everyone should have. These rights are life, freedom, and the chance to be happy. The Declaration says these rights are given to all humans by their creator, and that governments are made to protect these rights. Even though this phrase is not a law, many people use it to think about what governments should do. It has inspired many ideas about how countries should be run and how people should be treated.

Origin and phrasing

Main article: United States Declaration of Independence

Further information: History of the United States Constitution

The United States Declaration of Independence was written by Thomas Jefferson and edited by the Committee of Five, which included Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Roger Sherman, and Robert Livingston. It was finally approved by the Committee of the Whole of the Second Continental Congress on July 4, 1776. The famous phrase "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness" appears in the second paragraph of the Declaration.

Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration is displayed in the Library of Congress. Scholars have studied where Jefferson might have gotten the idea for this phrase. Some think it came from the ideas of John Locke, while others believe Jean-Jacques Rousseau had more influence.

Comparable mottos worldwide

The idea of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" appears in many important documents around the world. For example, Canada's laws talk about "life, liberty, security of the person." Japan's constitution mentions similar values, as does South Korea's. Even older documents, like one from Vietnam in 1945, share these same important ideas. In the United States, the constitution also protects "life, liberty, or property" and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security.

Main articles: Canadian Charter of Rights, Canadian Bill of Rights, Constitution of Japan, Constitution of South Korea, Ho Chi Minh, 1945 declaration of independence, Democratic Republic of Vietnam, Declaration of Colonial Rights, First Continental Congress, Fifth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, due process, Universal Declaration of Human Rights