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To ask whether the natural rights philosophy of the Declaration of Independence is true or false is essentially a meaningless question.

— Carl L. Becker The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas (1922)

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Philosophy

More quotes by Carl L. Becker

The primary purpose of the Declaration was not to declare independence, but to proclaim to the world the reasons for declaring independence. It was intended as a formal justification of an act already accomplished.

The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas (1922)

The Declaration was essentially an attempt to prove that rebellion was not the proper word for what they were doing.

The Declaration of Independence: A Study in the History of Political Ideas (1922)

We look about in vain for any semblance of the old authority, the old absolute, for any suitable foothold from which to get a running start.

The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-century Philosophers (1932)

To John Adams he [Samuel] said on one occasion, "he never looked forward in life; never planned, laid a scheme, or formed a design for laying up anything for himself or others after him. This was the truth, inexplicable as it must have seemed to his more provident cousin.

The Eve of the Revolution (1918)

[O]ur feelings of superiority are built on the quicksand of ignorance.

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The most merciful thing in the world, I think, is the inability of the human mind to correlate all its contents.

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There is no governor anywhere; you are all absolutely free. There is no restraint that cannot be escaped.

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Every morning
I shall concern myself anew about the boundary
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And pressing forward honor reality.

Martin Buber Power and Love (1926)

In the province of the mind, what one believes to be true is true or becomes true, within certain limits to be found experientially and experimentally. These limits are further beliefs to be transcended.

John C. Lilly The Human Biocomputer (1974)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Carl L. Becker (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.