“Every morning, therefore, at about 9.30 after breakfast each of us, as if moved by a law of unquestioned nature, went off and ‘worked’ until lunch at one. It is surprising how much one can produce in a year, whether of buns or books or pots or pictures, if one works hard and professionally for three and a half hours every day for 330 days [a year]. That was why, … continue reading
1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Britain.
The following day, July 3rd, final revisions to Thomas Jefferson‘s draft of The Declaration of Independence were agreed to.
Which brings us to the 4th of July, 1776.
“In later years the excessive summer heat of Philadelphia would frequently figure in accounts of Thursday, July 4th, 1776,” David McCullough writes in his Pulitzer … continue reading
1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to declare independence from Britain.
“That these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved,” so read the motion.
But “there was … continue reading
1: “Monday, July 1st, 1776, began hot and steamy in Philadelphia, and before the morning was ended a full-scale summer storm would break,” David McCullough writes in his book John Adams.
John Adams, then one of Massachusetts’s delegates to the Second Continental Congress, was up before sunrise.
Early that morning, he wrote a long letter to Archibald Bulloch, the new president of Georgia: “This morning is assigned … continue reading
1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Britain.
The following day, July 3rd, final revisions to Thomas Jefferson‘s draft of The Declaration of Independence were agreed to.
Which brings us to the 4th of July, 1776.
“In later years the excessive summer heat of Philadelphia would frequently figure in accounts of Thursday, July 4th, 1776,” David McCullough writes in his Pulitzer … continue reading
1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted unanimously to declare independence from Britain.
“That these United Colonies are, and of a right ought to be, free and independent states, that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved,” so read the motion.
But “there was … continue reading
1: On July 2nd, 1776, the Second Continental Congress voted to declare independence from Britain.
The following day, final revisions to Thomas Jefferson‘s draft of The Declaration of Independence were agreed to.
Which brings us to the 4th of July, 1776.
“In later years the excessive summer heat of Philadelphia would frequently figure in accounts of Thursday, July 4th, 1776,” David McCullough writes in his Pulitzer Prize-winning … continue reading
1: “Thomas Jefferson penned the Declaration of Independence in 1776, and Americans have been unhappy ever since,” is the first sentence of Dan Sullivan and Benjamin Hardy‘s powerful book The Gap and The Gain: The High Achiever’s Guide to Happiness, Confidence, and Success.
“One specific phrase has come to define American culture and psychology: ‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness,'” Dan and Ben observe.
Thomas Jefferson wrestled … continue reading
1: Thomas Jefferson’s heart was set on politics.
The problem? He was “born quiet, contemplative, and reserved—purportedly with a speech impediment,” writes Ryan Holiday in The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph. “Compared to the great orators of his time—Patrick Henry, John Wesley, Edmund Burke—he was a terrible public speaker.”
Thomas had two options: he could fight this reality. Or, he could accept … continue reading
