“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.… — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share Image
“In America the taint of sectarianism lies broad upon the land. Not content with acknowledging the supremacy as the Deity, 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… — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share
“The deer that goes too often to the lick meets the hunter at last!” — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share Image
“The air, the water, and the ground are free gifts to man, and no one has the power to portion them out in parcels.… — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share Image
“Nothing is easier to us who pass our time in the great school of Providence than to l’arn its lessons.” — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share Image
“And am I answerable that thoughtless and unprincipled men exist whose shades of contenance may resemble mine?” — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share Image
“The tree blossoms, and bears its fruit, which falls, rots, withers, and even the seed is lost! Go, count the rings of the oak and of the sycamore; the lie in circles, one about another, until the eye is blinded in striving to make out their numbers; and yet a full change of the seasons comes round while the stem… — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share
I sometimes wish I had been educated a Catholic, in order to unite the poetry of religion with its higher principles. Are they necessarily… — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share Image
“When men speak, they should say that which does not go in at one side of the head and out at the other. Their… — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share Image
“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 Copy Share
“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;… — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share Image
“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… — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share
“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… — James Fenimore Cooper Copy Share
