American - Writer | September 15, 1789 - September 14, 1851
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.
James Fenimore Cooper
GoodQualityManMindGentleman
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.
CharacterManGreatnessMediocrity
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.
PastAmericanForestAmericaWonder
All that a good government aims at... is to add no unnecessary and artificial aid to the force of its own unavoidable consequences, and to abstain from fortifying and accumulating social inequality as a means of increasing political inequalities.
GoodGovernmentPoliticalInequality
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.
SuccessAdventureBookFeelPersonal
America owes most of its social prejudices to the exaggerated religious opinions of the different sects which were so instrumental in establishing the colonies.
AmericaOpinionsColoniesSocial
A monarchy is the most expensive of all forms of government, the regal state requiring a costly parade, and he who depends on his own power to rule, must strengthen that power by bribing the active and enterprising whom he cannot intimidate.
PowerGovernmentActiveParadeOwn
Ignorance and superstition ever bear a close and mathematical relation to each other.
IgnoranceBearSuperstitionClose
Individuality is the aim of political liberty. By leaving 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.
HappinessFreedomActionPolitical
No civilized society can long exist, with an active power in its bosom that is stronger than the law.
PowerLawSocietyLongStronger
Slavery is no more sinful, by the Christian code, than it is sinful to wear a whole coat, while another is in tatters, to eat a better meal than a neighbor, or otherwise to enjoy ease and plenty, while our fellow creatures are suffering and in want.
SufferingSlaveryBetterChristian
Battles, unlike bargains, are rarely discussed in society.
SocietyBattlesRarelyUnlike
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