James F. Cooper
James F. Cooper
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth15 September 1789
CountryUnited States of America
James F. Cooper quotes about
american-novelist exhibit form masses men public substitute usual vice
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.
motivation inspiration ignorance
Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close and mathematical relation to each other.
hope fancy humans
Hope is the most treacherous of all human fancies.
evil
There are evils worse than death,
appreciated exception particular
Systems are to be appreciated by their general effects, and not by particular exceptions.
sunshine past roots
The listeners got some such insights into their past lives, as one gets into the darker parts of the woods, when a stray gleam of sunshine finds its way down to the roots of the trees.
motivational friendship spring
Friendship that flows from the heart cannot be frozen by adversity, as the water that flows from the spring cannogt congeal in winter.
fate decay all-things
It is the fate of all things to ripen, and then to decay.
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.
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.
humans
We are all human, and all do wrong.
taught-us justice sublime
Christ , in the parable of the vine dressers, has taught us a sublime lesson of justice, by showing that to the things which are not our own, we can have no just claim.
art people ignorant
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.