The Ancient Greek and Roman philosophers influenced them through the idea of democracy and people governing through parliaments and assemblies, while the European Philosophers influenced them through the ideas of Social Contract and human rights and things like that. This was mostly from Locke and Hobbes.
I believe the answer is:
"We live our lives taking each second for granted. But what would you do if you knew how much time you had left?"
The colonies settled in Pennsylvania
Because I'm not sure what text you're referring to, I can only talk on what I know about Galileo. Because he created the telescope and was able to provide more legitimate evidence to support Copernicus' Heliocentric Theory, he began proving that some of the Church's teachings were not correct. This was deemed heresy (to go against the belief and teachings of those around you in a way that seems like betrayal rather than freedom of thought)
