Here, we’ve compiled a list of the best James Fenimore Cooper Quotes. Let’s look at these pieces of wisdom. We definitely have something to learn from them!
1
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.
2
No civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.
3
America owes most of its social prejudices to the exaggerated religious opinions of the different sects which were so instrumental in establishing the colonies.
4
I can never tire of speaking of the bridges of Paris. By day and by night have I paused on them to gaze at their views; the word not being too comprehensive for the crowds and groupings of objects that are visible from their arches.
5
All that a good government aims at… is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities.
6
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.
7
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.
8
Battles, unlike bargains, are rarely discussed in society.
9
It is the besetting vice of democracies to substitute public opinion for law. This is the usual form in which the masses of men exhibit their tyranny.
10
Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion.
11
It is not a very difficult task to make what is commonly called an amusing book of travels. Any one who will tell, with a reasonable degree of graphic effect, what he has seen, will not fail to carry the reader with him; for the interest we all feel in personal adventure is, of itself, success.
12
Party leads to vicious, corrupt and unprofitable legislation, for the sole purpose of defeating party.
13
It is a misfortune that necessity has induced men to accord greater license to this formidable engine, in order to obtain liberty, than can be borne with less important objects in view; for the press, like fire, is an excellent servant, but a terrible master.
14
Systems are to be appreciated by their general effects, and not by particular exceptions.
15
All sacrifices of common sense, and all recourse to plausible political combinations, whether of individuals or of men, are uniformly made at the expense of the majority.
16
Candor is a proof of both a just frame of mind, and of a good tone of breeding. It is a quality that belongs equally to the honest man and to the gentleman.
17
The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms.
18
The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.
19
Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving 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.
20
The disposition of all power is to abuses, nor does it at all mend the matter that its possessors are a majority.
