James Fenimore Cooper Quotes & Sayings

I care not for your envy, or your hypocrisy, or even for your human nature. — James Fenimore Cooper

For flowers that will bloom in a garden will die on a heath ... — James Fenimore Cooper

Life is sweet, even to the aged; and, for that matter, I've known some that seemed to set much store by it when it got to be of the least value. — James Fenimore Cooper

The result of this conversation was a sudden determination to produce a work which, if it had no other merit, might present truer pictures of the ocean and ships than any that are to be found in the Pirate. — James Fenimore Cooper

An interesting fiction ... however paradoxical the assertion may appear ... addresses our love of truth- not the mere love of facts expressed by true names and dates, but the love of that higher truth, the truth of nature and principals, which is a primitive law of the human mind. — James Fenimore Cooper

The woods are but the ears of the Almighty, the air is his breath, and the light of the sun is little more than a glance of his eye. — James Fenimore Cooper

...the Evil Spirit delights more to dwell in an artful body, than in one that has no cunning to work upon. — James Fenimore Cooper

We live in a world of endless transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true. — James Fenimore Cooper

On the human imagination events produce the effects of time. Thus he who has travelled far and seen much is apt to fancy that he has lived long; and the history that most abounds in important incidents soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity. In no other way can we account for the venerable air that is already gathering around American annals. When the mind reverts to the earliest days of colonial history, the period seems remote and obscure, the thousand changes that thicken along the links of recollections, throwing back the origin of the nation to a day so distant as seemingly to reach the mists of time; and yet four lives of ordinary duration would suffice to transmit, from mouth to mouth, in the form of tradition, all that civilized man has achieved within the limits of the republic ... Thus, what seems venerable by an accumulation of changes is reduced to familiarity when we come seriously to consider it solely in connection with time. — James Fenimore Cooper

Paris enjoys a high reputation for the style of its public edifices, and, while there is a very great deal to condemn, compared with other capitals, I think it is entitled to a distinguished place in this particular. — James Fenimore Cooper

Friend, I am grieved when I find a venator or hunter of your experience and observation, following the current of vulgar error. The animal you describe, is in truth a species of the bos ferus or bos sylvestris, as he has been happily called by the poets, but, though of close affinity it is altogether distinct, from the common Bubulus. Bison is the better word, and I would suggest the necessity of adopting it in the future, when you shall have occasion to allude to the species. — James Fenimore Cooper

God planted the seeds of all the trees," continued Hetty, after a moment's pause, "and you see to what a height and shade they have grown! So it is with the Bible. You may read a verse this year, and forget it, and it will come back to you a year hence, when you least expect to remember it. — James Fenimore Cooper

Patience is the greatest of virtues in a woodsman. — James Fenimore Cooper

Even the robin and the martin come back, year after year, to their old nests; shall a woman be less true hearted than a bird? — James Fenimore Cooper

Chingachgook grasped the hand that, in the warmth of feeling, the scout had stretched across the fresh earth, and in that attitude of friendship these intrepid woodsmen bowed their heads together, while scalding tears fell to their feet, watering the grave of Uncas like drops of falling rain. — James Fenimore Cooper

All greatness of character is dependent on individuality. The man who has no other existence than that which he partakes in common with all around him, will never have any other than an existence of mediocrity. — James Fenimore Cooper

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. — James Fenimore Cooper

Tis hard to live in a world where all look upon you as below them. — James Fenimore Cooper

Every trail has its end, and every calamity brings its lesson! — James Fenimore Cooper

...nothing that crawls the earth is for my sport. — James Fenimore Cooper

Come, friend; you are welcome, though your notions are a little blinded with reading too many books. — James Fenimore Cooper

If a man believed all that other people choose to say in their own favor, he might get an oversized opinion of them, and an undersized opinion of himself. — James Fenimore Cooper

Is it justice to make evil, and then punish for it? — James Fenimore Cooper

They linger yet, Avengers of their native land." - Gray — James Fenimore Cooper

It's wisest always to be so clad that our friends need not ask us for our names. — James Fenimore Cooper

Equality, in a social sense, may be divided into that of condition, and that of rights. Equality of condition is incompatible with civilization, and is found only to exist in those communities that are but slightly removed from the savage state. In practice, it can only mean a common misery. — James Fenimore Cooper

The arches of the woods, even at high noon, cast their sombre shadows on the spot, which the brilliant rays of the sun that struggled through the leaves contributed to mellow, and if such an expression can be used, to illuminate. It was probably from a similar scene that the mind of man first got its idea of the effects of gothic tracery and churchly hues, this temple of nature producing some such effect, so far as light and shadow were concerned, as the well-known offspring of human invention. — James Fenimore Cooper

The manner in which the Americans are subdivided into sects also conflicts with any commendable desire that may exist to build glorious temples in honor of the Deity: and convenience is more consulted than taste, perhaps, in all that relates to ecclesiastical architecture. Nevertheless, — James Fenimore Cooper

I want no thunder or lightning to remind me of my God, nor am I as apt to bethink on most of all His goodness in trouble and tribulations as on a calm, solemn, quiet day in a forest, when His voice is heard in the creaking of a dead branch or in the song of a bird, as much in my ears at least as it is ever heard in uproar and gales. — James Fenimore Cooper

The turf shall be my fragrant shrine; My temple, Lord! that arch of thine; My censer's breath the mountain airs, And silent thoughts my only prayers. MOORE — James Fenimore Cooper

Tis open before your eyes," returned the scout; "and he who knows it is not a niggard of its use. I have heard it said that there are men who read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man may deform his works in the settlement, as to leave that which is so clear in the wilderness a matter of doubt among traders and priests. If any such there be, and he will follow me from sun to sun, through the windings of the forest, he shall see enough to teach him that he is a fool, and the greatest of his folly lies in striving to rise to the level of One he can never equal, be it in goodness, or be it in power. — James Fenimore Cooper

Walking about streets, going to church of Sundays, and hearing sermons, never yet made a man of a human being. Send the boy out upon the broad ocean, if you wish to open his eyes, and let him look upon foreign nations, or what I call the face of nature, if you wish him to understand his own character. — James Fenimore Cooper

The deer that goes too often to the lick meets the hunter at last! — James Fenimore Cooper

The affairs of life embrace a multitude of interests, and he who reasons in any one of them, without consulting the rest, is a visionary unsuited to control the business of the world. — James Fenimore Cooper

...that dog is more to be trusted than many a Christian man; for he never forgets a friend, and loves the hand that gives him bread. — James Fenimore Cooper

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. — James Fenimore Cooper

For though the quiet of deep solitude reigned in that vast and nearly boundless forest, nature was speaking with her thousand tongues in the eloquent language of night in a wilderness. The air sighed through ten thousand trees, the water ripped, and at places even roared along the shores; and now and then was heard the creaking of a branch or a trunk, as it rubbed against some object similar to itself, under the vibrations of a nicely balanced body. — James Fenimore Cooper

Say to these kind and gentle females, that a heart-broken and failing man returns them his thanks. Tell them, that the Being we all worship, under different names, will be mindful of their charity; and that the time shall not be distant when we may assemble around His throne without distinction of sex, or rank, or color. The — James Fenimore Cooper

When men speak, they should say that which does not go in at one side of the head and out at the other. Their words shouldn't be feathers, so light that a wind which does not ruffle the water can blow them away. — James Fenimore Cooper

As bright examples of great qualities are but too uncommon among Christians, so are they singular and solitary with the Indians; though, for the honor of our common nature, neither are incapable of producing them. Let us then hope that this Mohican may not disappoint our wishes, but prove, what his looks assert him to be, a brave and constant friend.
The last of the Mohicans by: James Fenimore Cooper — James Fenimore Cooper

All places that the eye of heaven visits/ Are to a wise man ports and happy havens:/ Think not the king did banish thee:/ But thou the king.
Richard II — James Fenimore Cooper

Your young white, who gathers his learning from books and can measure what he knows by the page, may conceit that his knowledge, like his legs, outruns that of his fathers', but, where experience is the master, the scholar is made to know the value of years, and respects them accordingly. — James Fenimore Cooper

Men who, in their hearts, really care no more for mankind than See-wise cared for the fish, lift their voices in shouts of a spurious humanity, in order to raise themselves to power, on the shoulders of an excited populace. Bloodshed, domestic violence, impracticable efforts to attain an impossible perfection, and all the evils of a civil conflict are forgotten or blindly attempted, in order to raise themselves in the arms of those they call the people. — James Fenimore Cooper

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 Fenimore Cooper

It is better for a man to die at peace with himself than to live haunted by an evil conscience! — James Fenimore Cooper

Nothing but vast wisdom and onlimited power should dare sweep men off in multitudes,' he added; 'for it is only the one that can know the necessity of the judgement; and what is there short of the other, that can replace the creatures of the Lord? — James Fenimore Cooper

Has dropped into the river, said Hurry, after looking carefully along — James Fenimore Cooper

History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness. — James Fenimore Cooper

Knowledge is the parent of knowledge. He who possesses most of the information of his age will not quietly submit to neglect its current acquisitions, but will go on improving as long as means and opportunities offer; while he who finds himself ignorant of most things, is only too apt to shrink from a labour which becomes Herculean. — James Fenimore Cooper

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. — James Fenimore Cooper

Washington, who, after uselessly admonishing the European general of the danger into which he was heedlessly running, saved the remnants of the British army, on this occasion, by his decision and courage. The reputation earned by Washington in this battle was the principal cause of his being selected to command the American armies at a later day. It is a circumstance worthy of observation, that while all America rang with his well-merited reputation, his name does not occur in any European account of the battle; at least the author has searched for it without success. In this manner does the mother country absorb even the fame, under that system of rule. — James Fenimore Cooper

Nevertheless, likin' is a tender plant, and never thrives long when watered with tears. Let the 'arth around your married happiness be moistened by the dews of kindness. — James Fenimore Cooper

I have attended church-service in the garrisons, and tried hard ... to join in the prayers ... but never could raise within me the solemn feelings and true affection that I feel when alone with God in the forest. There I seem to stand face to face with my Master; all around me is fresh and beautiful, as it came from His hand; and there is no nicety or doctrine to chill the feelings. No no; the woods are the true temple after all, for there the thoughts are free to mount higher even than the clouds. — James Fenimore Cooper

The gifts of our colors may be different, but God has so placed us as to journey in the same path. — James Fenimore Cooper

Battles, unlike bargains, are rarely discussed in society. — James Fenimore Cooper

Where are the blossoms of those summers!-fallen, one by one: so all of my family departed, each in his turn, to the land of the spirits. — James Fenimore Cooper

I too can play the madman, the fool, the hero; in short, any or everything to rescue her I love. — James Fenimore Cooper

Whatever may be the changes produced by man, the eternal round of the seasons is unbroken. — James Fenimore Cooper

I look upon the redmen to be quite as human as we are ourselves, Hurry. They have their gifts, and their religion, it's true; but that makes no difference in the end, when each will be judged according to his deeds and not according to his skin. — James Fenimore Cooper

And am I answerable that thoughtless and unprincipled men exist whose shades of contenance may resemble mine? — James Fenimore Cooper

Advice is not a gift, but a debt that the old owe to the young. — James Fenimore Cooper

Ah's me! if we could be what what we wish to be, instead of being only what we are, there would be a great difference in our characters and knowledge and appearance. One may be rude and coarse and ignorant, and yet happy, if he does not know it; but it is hard to see our own failings in the strongest light, just as we wish to hear the least about them. — James Fenimore Cooper

To those who live in the narrow circle of human interests and human feelings, there ever exists, unheeded, almost unnoticed, before their very eyes, the most humbling proofs of their own comparative insignificance in the scale of creation, which, in the midst of their admitted mastery over the earth and all it contains, it would be well for them to consider, if they would obtain just views of what they are and what they were intended to be. — James Fenimore Cooper

We are all human, and all do wrong. — James Fenimore Cooper

My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of the Unamis happy and strong; and yet, before the sun has come, have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans. — James Fenimore Cooper

It should be remembered that men always prize that most which is least enjoyed. — James Fenimore Cooper

Else would my scalp long since have been drying in a Mingo wigwam. — James Fenimore Cooper

happy hunting-grounds — James Fenimore Cooper

One, and she was the more juvenile in her appearance, though both were young, permitted glimpses of her dazzling complexion, fair golden hair, and bright blue eyes, to be caught, as she artlessly suffered the morning air to blow aside the green veil which descended low from her beaver. — James Fenimore Cooper

So much the better - so much the better; for I have always found that a conceited man never knows content. All things prove it. Why have we not the wings of the pigeon, the eyes of the eagle, and the legs of the moose, if it had been intended that man should be equal to all his wishes? — James Fenimore Cooper

A thing which is of no moment itself may be made of importance in the way of competition. — James Fenimore Cooper

Judith:"And where, then, is your sweetheart, Deerslayer?"
Deerslayer: "She's in the forest, Judith - hanging from the boughs of the trees, in a soft rain - in the dew on the open grass - the clouds that float about in the blue heavens - the birds that sing in the woods - the sweet springs where I slake my thirst - and in all the other glorious gifts that come from God's Providence! — James Fenimore Cooper

A man without conscience is but a poor creature ... — James Fenimore Cooper

Tis a strange calling!' muttered Hawkeye, with an inward laugh, 'to go through life, like a catbird, mocking all the ups and downs that may happen to come out of other men's throats. — James Fenimore Cooper

Then he was wrong, Hurry; very wrong. A man can enjoy plunder peaceably nowhere. — James Fenimore Cooper

We live in a world of transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true; though happily for human nature, gleamings of that pure spirit in whose likeness man has been fashioned, are to be seen, relieving its deformities, and mitigating, if not excusing its crimes. — James Fenimore Cooper

The air, the water, and the ground are free gifts to man, and no one has the power to portion them out in parcels. Man must drink, breath, and walk - and therefore each has a right to his share of earth. — James Fenimore Cooper

No! You stay alive! Submit, do you hear? You're strong, you survive. You stay alive, no matter what occurs! I will find you. No matter how long it takes, no matter how far, I will find you ... (Hawkeye / The Last of the Mohicans) 97 — James Fenimore Cooper

Then as to churches, they are good, I suppose, else wouldn't good men uphold' em. But they are not altogether necessary. They call 'em the temples of the Lord; but, Judith, the whole 'arth is a temple of the Lord to such as have the right mind. Neither forts nor churches make people happier of themselves. Moreover, all is contradiction in the settlements, while all is concord in the woods. Forts and churches almost always go together, and yet they're downright contradictions; churches being for peace, and forts for war. No, no
give me the strong places of the wilderness, which is the trees, and the churches, too, which are arbors raised by the hand of nature. — James Fenimore Cooper

...every period of life has its necessities, and at forty-seven it's just as well to trust a little to the head. — James Fenimore Cooper

You are young, and rich, and have friends, and at such an age I know it is hard to die! — James Fenimore Cooper

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 Fenimore Cooper

When the colony's laws, or even the King's laws, run ag'in the laws of God, they get to be onlawful, and ought not to be obeyed. — James Fenimore Cooper

Any eye at all practiced in the signs of a frontier warfare, might easily have traced all those unerring evidences of the ruthless results which attends an Indian vengeance.
Still, the sun rose on the Lenape a nation of mourners. — James Fenimore Cooper

I sometimes wish I had been educated a Catholic, in order to unite the poetry of religion with its higher principles. Are they necessarily inseparable? Is man really so much of a philosopher, that he can conceive of truth in its abstract purity, and divest life and the affections of all the aids of the imagination? — James Fenimore Cooper

The European who comes to America plunges into the virgin forest with wonder and delight; while the American who goes to Europe finds his greatest pleasure, at first, in hunting up the memorials of the past. Each is in quest of novelty, and is burning with the desire to gaze at objects of which he has often read. — James Fenimore Cooper

Nothing is easier to us who pass our time in the great school of Providence than to l'arn its lessons. — James Fenimore Cooper

It is the fate of all things to ripen, and then to decay. — James Fenimore Cooper