James F. Cooper Quotes - Page 3

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• I can't see no great difference atween givin' up territory afore a war, out of a dread of war, and givin' it up after a war, because we can't help it-unless it be that the last is the most manful and honourable.

  James F. Cooper

  War, Differences, Territory

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• They who have reasoned ignorantly, or who have aimed at effecting their personal ends by flattering the popular feeling, have boldly affirmed that 'one man is as good as another'; a maxim that is true in neither nature, revealed morals, nor political theory.

  James F. Cooper

  Men, Political, Feelings

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

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• Equality, in a social sense, may be divided into that of condition, and that of rights. Equality of condition is incompatible with civilization, and is found only to exist in those communities that are but slightly removed from the savage state. In practice, it can only mean a common misery.
  Equality of rights is a peculiar feature of democracies. These rights are properly divided into civil and political, though even these definitions are not to be taken as absolute, or as literally exact.

  James F. Cooper

  Military, Men, Law

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

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• It is a besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which masses of men exhibit their tyranny.

  James F. Cooper

  Freedom, Men, Democracies Have

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

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• We live in a world of transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true; though happily for human nature, gleamings of that pure spirit in whose likeness man has been fashioned, are to be seen, relieving its deformities, and mitigating, if not excusing its crimes.

  James F. Cooper

  Men, Selfishness, World

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• Perfection is always found in maturity, whether it be in the animal or in the intellectual world. Reflection is the mother of wisdom, and wisdom the parent of success.

  James F. Cooper

  Mother, Maturity, Animal

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• As for bread, I count that for nothin'. We always have bread and potatoes enough; but I hold a family to be in a desperate way when the mother can see the bottom of the pork barrel. Give me children that's raised on good sound pork afore all the game in the country. Game's good as a relish and so's bread; but pork is the staff of life... My children I calkerlate to bring up on pork with just as much bread and butter as they want.

  James F. Cooper

  Country, Mother, Children

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• The very existence of government at all, infers inequality. The citizen who is preferred to office becomes the superior of those who are not, so long he is the repository of power.

  James F. Cooper

  Government, Long, Office

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

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• In America the taint of sectarianism lies broad upon the land. Not content with acknowledging the supremacy as the Diety, and with erecting temples in his honor, where all can bow down with reverence, the pride and vanity of human reason enter into and pollute our worship, and the houses that should be of God and for God, alone, where he is to be honored with submissive faith, are too often merely schools of metaphysical and useless distinctions. The nation is sectarian, rather than Christian.

  James F. Cooper

  Christian, Lying, School

  "The American Democrat: The Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, p. 207, April 1, 2010.

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• It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered, before the adverse hosts could meet. A wide, and, apparently, an impervious boundary of forests, severed the possessions of the hostile provinces of France and England. The hardy colonist, and the trained European who fought at his side, frequently expended months in struggling against the rapids of the streams, or in effecting the rugged passes of the mountains, in quest of an opportunity to exhibit their courage in a more martial conflict.

  James F. Cooper

  War, Struggle, Book

  "The Last of the Mohicans". Book by James F. Cooper, 1826.

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• Chingachgook grasped the hand that, in the warmth of feeling, the scout had stretched across the fresh earth, and in that attitude of friendship these intrepid woodsmen bowed their heads together, while scalding tears fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncas like drops of falling rain.

  James F. Cooper

  Attitude, Rain, Fall

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• Near the centre of that State of New York lies an extensive district of country, whose surface is a succession of hills and dales, or, to speak with greater deference to geographical definitions, of mountains and valleys.

  James F. Cooper

  Country, New York, Lying

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• Hebrews . This book is much superior to most of the writings attributed to St. Paul, though passages in the other books are very admirable.

  James F. Cooper

  Book, Writing, Hebrew

  "Correspondence of James Fenimore-Cooper". Book by James Fenimore Cooper, Journal kept by Cooper from January to May 1848, 1922.

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• Everybody says it, and what everybody says must be true.

  James F. Cooper

  Truth, Scandal, Being True

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• These families, you know, are our upper crust, not upper ten thousand.

  James F. Cooper

  Society, Thousand, Knows

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• The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity, since the tastes, knowledge, and principles of the majority form the tribunal of appeal.

  James F. Cooper

  Freedom, Democracy, Majority

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• No civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.

  James F. Cooper

  Reality, Law, Long

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• The Americans... are almost ignorant of the art of music, one of the most elevating, innocent and refining of human tastes, whose influence on the habits and morals of a people is of the most beneficial tendency.

  James F. Cooper

  Art, People, Ignorant

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

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• The vulgar charge that the tendency of democracies is to leveling, meaning to drag all down to the level of the lowest, is singularly untrue; its real tendency being to elevate the depressed to a condition not unworthy of their manhood.

  James F. Cooper

  Real, Democracy, Levels

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• A refined simplicity is the characteristic of all high bred deportment, in every country, and a considerate humanity should be the aim of all beneath it.

  James F. Cooper

  Country, Simplicity, Humanity

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

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• On the human imagination events produce the effects of time.

  James F. Cooper

  Time, Imagination, Events

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• On the human imagination, events produce the effects of time. Thus, he who has travelled far and seen much, is apt to fancy that he has lived long; and the history that most abounds in important incidents, soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity.

  James F. Cooper

  Time, Long, Imagination

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• Superstition is a quality that seems indigenous to the ocean.

  James F. Cooper

  Ocean, Quality, Superstitions

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• We are all human, and all do wrong.

  James F. Cooper

  Humans

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• It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper aim, is most productive of evil.

  James F. Cooper

  Agency, Evil, Principles

  "The American Democrat: Or, Hints on the Social and Civic Relations of the United States of America". Book by James F. Cooper (Conclusion, p. 191), 1838.

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