The founders of this great Republic gave us the phrase
"Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness"The sequence implies that "life" is more important than one's liberty
and that life is more important than one's pursuit of happiness.
Just because words are in sequence does not necessarily require that they are unequal. Happiness can not be pursued without liberty and some believe that life is not valid without liberty ("Give me liberty or give me death"). Patrick Henry seemed to believe in the equality of at least life and liberty and we hold him to be an American hero.