judypatricia

Being the big little American history nerd that I happen to enjoy being, it surprises even myself that I haven't made an effort until recently to make a pilgrimage to not-so-far-away Philadelphia.

Click on the images for the bigger and better versions, if you care to see them.

'Tis done. We have become a nation.
--Benjamin Rush, 1788


Wish not so much to live long as to live well.
--Benjamin Franklin, 1746


When we have lived our generation out, we should not wish to encroach on another.
--Thomas Jefferson, 1816


We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
--Benjamin Franklin, 1776


I can see that the end is more than worth all the means, and that posterity will triumph in that day's transaction....
--John Adams, 1776


Give me the steady, uniform, unshaken security of constitutional freedom....
--Alexander Hamilton, 1774


Liberty cannot be purchased by a wish.
--Thomas Paine, 1792


The greater the chaos, the greater will be your merit in bringing forth order.
--George Washington, 1781


But my country has in its wisdom contrived for me the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived. And as I can do neither good nor evil, I must be borne away by others, and meet the common fate.
--John Adams, 1787


What disappointed me about visiting these major historical sites is how... detached I sort of felt from them. It's a little difficult having time to really connect with history when you've got to go get tickets, go through airport-level security, and stand on long lines with and be shoved around by several dozens of other tourists. I didn't feel I could get close to the things I saw and fully appreciate the places I stood in. Maybe because it is, after all, Philadelphia, I should have expected it to be as theme-park as it was. Either that, or I was just tired and spoiled by New York historical hot spots.