What makes the Universal Declaration an epochal document is first of all its global impetus and secondly the breadth of its claims, a commitment to a new social contract, binding on all the Governments of the world.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
The other salient characteristic of the Declaration is its universality: it applies to all human beings without any discrimination whatever; it also applies to all territories, whatever their economic or political regime.
The Declaration is a magnificent document.
Let all Americans sit down and read this great document. Since the Constitution's ratification, it has been the framework for our great nation.
All the great things of humanity have been accomplished in the name of absolute principles.
In America we have a Declaration of Independence, but our history, our advancements, our global strength all point to an American declaration of interdependence.
Our first object is... the obtaining of sovereignty, assured by international law, over a portion of the globe sufficiently large to satisfy our just requirements.
For a country is not merely a piece of earth; it is, above all, a compendium of social, cultural, and historical factors which begin to acquire sense and order through the process of writing.
Our epoch is a time of tragic collision between matter and spirit and of the downfall of the purely material world view.
The solutions to our problems are and always will be based upon universal, timeless, self-evident principles common to every enduring, prospering society throughout history.
A writer is justly called 'universal' when he is understood within the limits of his civilization, though that be bounded by a country or an age.