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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

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James F. Cooper
Disposition
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More quotes by James F. Cooper

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The disposition of all power is to abuses, nor does it at all mend the matter that its possessors are a majority. Unrestrained political authority, though it be confided to masses, cannot be trusted without positive limitations, men in bodies being but an aggregation of the passions, weaknesses and interests of men as individuals.
James F. Cooper
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Hebrews . This book is much superior to most of the writings attributed to St. Paul, though passages in the other books are very admirable.
James F. Cooper
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tis hard to live in a world where all look upon you as below them.
James F. Cooper
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The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms.
James F. Cooper
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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 F. Cooper
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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 F. Cooper
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Battles, unlike bargains, are rarely discussed in society.
James F. Cooper
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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.
James F. Cooper
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Whenever the government of the United States shall break up, it will probably be in consequence of a false direction having been given to public opinion.
James F. Cooper
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Perfection is always found in maturity, whether it be in the animal or in the intellectual world. Reflection is the mother of wisdom, and wisdom the parent of success.
James F. Cooper
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New York is essentially national in interest, position, pursuits. No one thinks of the place as belonging to a particular state, but to the United States.
James F. Cooper
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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
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A soul,--a spark of the never-dying flame that separates man from all the other beings of earth.
James F. Cooper
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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 F. Cooper
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How easy it is for generous sentiments, high courtesy, and chivalrous courage to lose their influence beneath the chilling blight of selfishness, and to exhibit to the world a man who was great in all the minor attributes of character, but who was found wanting when it became necessary to prove how much principle is superior to policy.
James F. Cooper
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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
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The minority of a country is never known to agree, except in its efforts to reduce and oppress the majority.
James F. Cooper
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There is a destiny in war, to which a brave man knows how to submit with the same courage that he faces his foes.
James F. Cooper
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Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving to the citizen as much freedom of action and of being as comports with order and the rights of others, the institutions render him truly a freeman. He is left to pursue his means of happiness in his own manner.
James F. Cooper
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Contact with the affairs of state is one of the most corrupting of the influences to which men are exposed.
James F. Cooper