The phrase “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” is most famously attributed to Thomas Jefferson , who wrote it into the United States Declaration of Independence , adopted on July 4, 1776.

Who said it?

  • The wording appears in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, drafted primarily by Thomas Jefferson.
  • The Continental Congress edited Jefferson’s draft, but the core phrase “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” remained and is credited to Jefferson as the principal author.

Where the phrase appears

  • The line appears in the Declaration in the sentence beginning “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…”.
  • In Jefferson’s earlier draft, he used a similar construction about rights that are “inherent & inalienable,” including “life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness.”

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.