Top 80 James F. Cooper Quotes (2025 Update)
Page 2 of 2

51. “The novice in the military art flew from point to point, retarding his own preparations by the excess of his violent and somewhat distempered zeal; while the more practiced veteran made his arrangements with a deliberation that scorned every appearance of haste.”

— James F. Cooper

52. “It’s wisest always to be so clad that our friends need not ask us for our names.”

— James F. Cooper

53. “Much was said and written, at the time, concerning the policy of adding the vast regions of Louisiana, to the already immense, and but half-tenanted territories of the United-States.”

— James F. Cooper

54. “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.”

— James F. Cooper

55. “No one, who is familiar with the bustle and activity of an American commercial town, would recognise, in the repose which now reigns in the ancient mart of Rhode Island, a place that, in its day, has been ranked amongst the most important ports along the whole line of our extended coast.”

— James F. Cooper

56. “The flesh is sweeter, where the creature has some chance for its life; for that reason, I always use a single ball, even if it be at a bird or a squirrel; besides, it saves lead, for, when a body knows how to shoot, one piece of lead is enough for all, except hard-lived animals.”

— James F. Cooper

57. “It is seldom men think of death in the pride of their health and strength.”

— James F. Cooper

58. “A single glance at the map will make the reader acquainted with the position of the eastern coast of the island of Great Britain, as connected with the shores of the opposite continent.”

— James F. Cooper

59. “In America, it is indispensable that every well wisher of true liberty should understand that acts of tyranny can only proceed from the publick. The publick, then, is to be watched, in this country, as, in other countries kings and aristocrats are to be watched.”

— James F. Cooper

60. “I do not pretend that all that white men do is properly Christianized...”

— James F. Cooper

61. “On the human imagination events produce the effects of time.”

— James F. Cooper

62. “No star seemed less than what science has taught us that it is.”

— James F. Cooper

63. “The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.”

— James F. Cooper

64. “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.”

— James F. Cooper

65. “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

66. “Superstition is a quality that seems indigenous to the ocean.”

— James F. Cooper

67. “Liberty is not a matter of words, but a positive and important condition of society. Its greatest safeguard after placing its foundations in a popular base, is in the checks and balances imposed on the public servants.”

— James F. Cooper

68. “If we would have civilization and the exertion indispensable to its success, we must have property; if we have property, we must have its rights; if we have the rights of property, we must take those consequences of the rights of property which are inseparable from the rights themselves.”

— James F. Cooper

69. “Individuality is the aim of political liberty.”

— James F. Cooper

70. “We are all human, and all do wrong.”

— James F. Cooper

71. “Death is appalling to those of the most iron nerves, when it comes quietly and in the stillness and solitude of night.”

— James F. Cooper

72. “I’ve heard it said that there are men who read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man may so deform his works in the settlements, as to leave that which is so clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests.”

— James F. Cooper

73. “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.”

— James F. Cooper

74. “The disposition of all power is to abuses, nor does it at all mend the matter that its possessors are a majority.”

— James F. Cooper

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

— James F. Cooper

76. “The minority of a country is never known to agree, except in its efforts to reduce and oppress the majority.”

— James F. Cooper

77. “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

78. “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.”

— James F. Cooper

79. “Aristocracy: A combination of many powerful men, for the purpose of maintaining their own particular interests. It is consequently a concentration of all the most effective parts of a community for a given end, hence its energy, efficiency and success.”

— James F. Cooper

80. “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

81. “These families, you know, are our upper crust, not upper ten thousand.”

— James F. Cooper

82. “Contact with the affairs of state is one of the most corrupting of the influences to which men are exposed.”

— James F. Cooper

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

— James F. Cooper

84. “Battles, unlike bargains, are rarely discussed in society.”

— James F. Cooper