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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 The Last of the Mohicans (1826)

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More quotes by James Fenimore Cooper

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)

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Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: James Fenimore Cooper (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.