27 quotes
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.
It is better for a man to die at peace with himself than to live haunted by an evil conscience.
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
When the white man dies, he thinks he is at peace; but the red-men know how to torture even the ghosts of their enemies.
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
Is it justice to make evil and then punish for it?
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
History, like love, is so apt to surround her heroes with an atmosphere of imaginary brightness.
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
Every trail has its end, and every calamity brings its lesson!
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
Those families, you know, are our upper crust—not upper ten thousand.
The Ways of the Hour (1850)
Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and that his skin is dark?
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
The common faults of American language are an ambition of effect, a want of simplicity, and a turgid abuse of terms.
I have listened to all the sounds of the woods for thirty years, as a man will listen whose life and death depend on the quickness of his ears.
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
God has given the salt lick to the deer; and He has given to man, red-skin and white, the delicious spring at which to slake his thirst.
The Pathfinder (1840)
“'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.
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
In short, the magnifying influence of fear began to set at naught the calculations of reason, and to render those who should have remembered their manhood, the slaves of the basest passions.
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
Hebrews. This book is much superior to most of the writings attributed to St. Paul, though passages in the other books are very admirable.
Correspondence of James Fenimore-Cooper (1922)
'Tis grand! 'tis solemn! 'tis an education of itself to look upon!
The Deerslayer (1841)
Genesis. What an extraordinary history! It is impossible for us to appreciate conduct, when a power like that of God is directly brought to bear on it. Obedience to him is our first law.
Correspondence of James Fenimore-Cooper (1922)
It is probable a true history of human events would show that a far larger proportion of our acts are the results of sudden impulses and accident, than of that reason of which we so much boast.
The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea (1823)
It should be remembered that men always prize that most which is least enjoyed. Thus, in a new country, the woods and other objects, which in an old country would be maintained at great cost, are got rid of, simply with a view of “improving” as it is called.
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
I am on the hill-top, and must go down into the valley; and when Uncas follows in my footsteps, there will no longer be any of the blood of the Sagamores, for my boy is the last of the Mohicans.
The Last of the Mohicans (1826)
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.