95 Quotes by James Fenimore Cooper

A monarchy is the most expensive of all forms of government, the regal state requiring a costly parade, and he who depends on his own power to rule, must strengthen that power by bribing the active and enterprising whom he cannot intimidate.

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.

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

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.

The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms.

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

Slavery is no more sinful, by the Christian code, than it is sinful to wear a whole coat, while another is in tatters, to eat a better meal than a neighbor, or otherwise to enjoy ease and plenty, while our fellow creatures are suffering and in want.

America owes most of its social prejudices to the exaggerated religious opinions of the different sects which were so instrumental in establishing the colonies.

Systems are to be appreciated by their general effects, and not by particular exceptions.