Walter Isaacson on The Greatest Sentence Ever Written
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I'm Rufus Griskum and this is the Next Big Idea. Today, Walter Isaacson on the sentence that changed human history. The last time I read the Declaration of Independence was about a decade ago. I was standing in the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C., with my family, and my eyes got all teary. On Saturday, I read it again, this time quietly in a restaurant, to my fifteen year old son over brunch.
A tear ran all the way down my cheek. Dad, you can stop reading now, my son begged. Please stop. Of course, I kept reading. I was holding an early copy of the latest book from Walter Isaacson, one of the great biographers, writers, and public intellectuals of our time.
It's called The Greatest Sentence Ever Written. Walter is referring to the second sentence of the Declaration of Independence, with which we're all familiar. We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I tried to explain to my son why these words were making me all reclamped.
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