James F. Cooper
James F. Cooper
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 September 1789
CountryUnited States of America
James F. Cooper quotes about
society thousand ten
These families, you know, are our upper crust, not upper ten thousand.
humility passion men
The demagogue is usually sly, a detractor of others, a professor of humility and disinterestedness, a great stickler for equality as respects all above him, a man who acts in corners, and avoids open and manly expositions of his course, calls blackguards gentlemen, and gentlemen folks, appeals to passions and prejudices rather than to reason, and is in all respects, a man of intrigue and deception, of sly cunning and management.
christian lying school
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.
democracy mediocrity tendencies
The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.
winning air hymns
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.
government enemy society
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.
freedom men democracies-have
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.
names language loser
Some changes of language are to be regretted, as they lead to false inferences, and society is always a loser by mistaking names for things.
agency evil principles
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.
principles visionaries way
The American doctrinaire is the converse of the American demagogue, and, in this way, is scarcely less injurious to the public. The first deals in poetry, the last in cant. He is as much a visionary on one side, as the extreme theoretical democrat is a visionary on the other.
tyrants newspapers tyranny
If the newspapers are useful in overthrowing tyrants, it is only to establish a tyranny of their own.
advice debt young
Advice is not a gift, but a debt that the old owe to the young.
names needs asks
It's wisest always to be so clad that our friends need not ask us for our names.
humans
We are all human, and all do wrong.