“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)
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Carl L. Becker 25
American historian 1873–1945Related quotes
“What do you love doing so much that the words failure and success essentially become irrelevant?”
Source: Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear
“There is no proper meaning … every expression is essentially tropic.”
Cornelius Castoriadis, The Imaginary Institution of Society, trans. Kathleen Blamey (Cambridge, Mass. 1987) p. 348 ([10.1093/camqtly/bfs004]).
Source: Science and the Unseen World (1929), Ch. IV, p.48-49
Source: Something More, A Consideration of the Vast, Undeveloped Resources of Life (1920), p. 16
Short definition, tall order.
An Integral Spirituality
“Proper words in proper places, make the true definition of a style.”
Letter to a Young Clergyman http://www.online-literature.com/swift/religion-church-vol-one/7/ (January 9, 1720)
“We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing.”
Address in Baltimore, Maryland http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=88871 (18 April 1864)
1860s
Context: The world has never had a good definition of the word liberty, and the American people, just now, are much in want of one. We all declare for liberty; but in using the same word we do not all mean the same thing. With some the word liberty may mean for each man to do as he pleases with himself, and the product of his labor; while with others, the same word may mean for some men to do as they please with other men, and the product of other men's labor. Here are two, not only different, but incompatible things, called by the same name — liberty. And it follows that each of the things is, by the respective parties, called by two different and incompatible names — liberty and tyranny.
