The Declaration of Independence. Thomas Jefferson, one of the authors, used Locke's infamous phrase to profoundly state how the lives of American citizens would be fundamentally different than the lives of British colonists. It was Locke's phrase that helped the Declaration truly stand out as an original and forward-thinking document. “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, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness (Declaration,