“When you know a thing, to hold that you know it; and when you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it: this is knowledge.”
Confucius · Analects, 2.17
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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.
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About this quote
Meaning
These opening words of the Declaration of Independence assert that certain fundamental rights belong to every person by nature, not by the grace of any government. Jefferson is making the philosophical claim that equality and the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are not privileges to be granted or revoked but are built into the human condition itself. The phrase "self-evident" signals that these are truths requiring no proof, only recognition.
Context
The sentence comes from the preamble of the Declaration of Independence, adopted by the Second Continental Congress in July 1776. The delegates were formally announcing the American colonies' break from British rule, and this passage provided the moral justification for that act. Jefferson drew on Enlightenment philosophy, particularly ideas about natural rights that had circulated widely in the preceding century, weaving them into a document meant to speak to all of humanity, not just to the immediate political crisis.
About the author
Thomas Jefferson was a Virginia statesman, lawyer, and planter who served as the principal drafter of the Declaration of Independence. He later became the third President of the United States. Jefferson was a wide-ranging intellectual with deep interests in architecture, science, agriculture, and philosophy. His public career was long and consequential, though his legacy is complicated by the fact that he enslaved people throughout his life, a stark contradiction to the universal ideals he so memorably expressed.
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