It's the Brian Lairn Show.

I'm Tiffany Anson, filling in for Brian today.

Good morning again, everybody.

All right.

How well do you know this sentence from the Declaration of Independence?

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, and that among those are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

Did you know that the first draft of that sentence in that first

draft, Thomas Jefferson actually wrote, we hold these truths to be sacred. Benjamin Franklin,

however, crossed that out and made the change that we know today. This single key sentence

with its many edits is the subject of an entire new book by historian Walter

Isaacson. He's a professor of history at Tulane and the author of several books, including his

latest, the greatest sentence ever written. And he joins us now. Hi, Walter. Welcome back.

Hey, thank you, Tiffany. It's good to be back on the air. And I will say I misspoke say saying it was the first

sentence of the Declaration of Independence it is not everybody it's TGIF stand down all

the historians in the audience I know what I did I apologize the first sentence

is of course I'm gonna just editorialize and say it's a bit of a run-on sentence.

This would have probably taken you a little more time to dissect it begins with.

But they do talk about a decent respect for the opinions of mankind in the first sentence.

So it sets it up nicely, and you're right, that second sentence went through wonderful edits.

Yes. All right. So let's, the big question here, why key in on that particular sentence?

It's a mission statement we have as a nation, and it's a mission statement we haven't fulfilled

and certainly wasn't a description of the nation in 1776, but as we are getting into our 250th

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