James F. Cooper Quotes

Quotes about:

• All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity.

  James F. Cooper

  Character, Greatness, Men

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Essay by James F. Cooper, 1838.

  55 Copy quote

• Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to publick opinion. This is the weak point of our defenses, and the part to which the enemies of the system will direct all their attacks. Opinion can be so perverted as to cause the false to seem the true; the enemy, a friend, and the friend, an enemy; the best interests of the nation to appear insignificant, and trifles of moment; in a word, the right the wrong, and the wrong the right.

  James F. Cooper

  Government, Enemy, Society

  7 Copy quote

• Advice is not a gift, but a debt that the old owe to the young.

  James F. Cooper

  Advice, Debt, Young

  5 Copy quote

• Liberty is not a matter of words, but a positive and important condition of society. Its greatest safeguard after placing its foundations on a popular base, is in the checks and balances imposed on the public servants.

  James F. Cooper

  Government, Balance, Important

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

  4 Copy quote

• If the newspapers are useful in overthrowing tyrants, it is only to establish a tyranny of their own.

  James F. Cooper

  Tyrants, Newspapers, Tyranny

  6 Copy quote

• It is the fate of all things to ripen, and then to decay.

  James F. Cooper

  Fate, Decay, All Things

  7 Copy quote

• There is a pleasure in the pathless woods, There is a rapture on the lonely shore.

  James F. Cooper

  Lonely, Nature, Earth Day

  21 Copy quote

• The ability to discriminate between that which is true and that which is false is one of the last attainments of the human mind.

  James F. Cooper

  Mind, Lasts, Ability

  5 Copy quote

• Hope is the most treacherous of all human fancies.

  James F. Cooper

  Hope, Fancy, Humans

  18 Copy quote

• Principles . . . become modified in practice, by facts.

  James F. Cooper

  Reality, Practice, Principles

  4 Copy quote

• Contact with the affairs of state is one of the most corrupting of the influences to which men are exposed.

  James F. Cooper

  Men, Liberty, Influence

  4 Copy quote

• The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.

  James F. Cooper

  Democracy, Mediocrity, Tendencies

  8 Copy quote

• It is better for a man to die at peace with himself than to live haunted by an evil conscience!

  James F. Cooper

  Men, Evil, Dies

  21 Copy quote

• Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close and mathematical relation to each other.

  James F. Cooper

  Inspirational, Motivational, Ignorance

  22 Copy quote

• Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.

  James F. Cooper

  Mean, Rights, Government

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

  17 Copy quote

• Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannogt congeal in winter.

  James F. Cooper

  Motivational, Friendship, Spring

  14 Copy quote

• Party leads to vicious, corrupt and unprofitable legislation, for the sole purpose of defeating party.

  James F. Cooper

  Party, Purpose, Politics

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, 1838.

  13 Copy quote

• The sight of a coward's blood can never make a warrior tremble.

  James F. Cooper

  Warrior, Sight, Blood

  "The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757". Book by James F. Cooper, February 1826.

  4 Copy quote

• The air, the water and the ground are free gifts to man and no one has the power to portion them out in parcels. Man must drink and breathe and walk and therefore each man has a right to his share of each.

  James F. Cooper

  Men, Air, Free Gifts

  18 Copy quote

• History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.

  James F. Cooper

  Love, Hero, History

  9 Copy quote

• The minority of a country is never known to agree, except in its efforts to reduce and oppress the majority.

  James F. Cooper

  Country, Effort, Majority

  8 Copy quote

• Individuality is the aim of political liberty.

  James F. Cooper

  Political, Individuality, Liberty

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, "On Individuality", 1838.

  16 Copy quote

• A soul,--a spark of the never-dying flame that separates man from all the other beings of earth.

  James F. Cooper

  Men, Flames, Soul

  12 Copy quote

• In America, it is indispensable that every well wisher of true liberty should understand that acts of tyranny can only proceed from the publick. The publick, then, is to be watched, in this country, as, in other countries kings and aristocrats are to be watched.

  James F. Cooper

  Country, Kings, America

  4 Copy quote

• The sun had not risen, but the vault of heaven was rich with the winning, softness that "brings and shuts the day," while the whole air was filled with the carols of birds, the hymns of the feathered tribe.

  James F. Cooper

  Winning, Hymns, Air

  7 Copy quote

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