James Fenimore Cooper Quotes

″Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and that his skin is dark?”

″‘A Huron!’ repeated the sturdy scout, once more shaking his head in open distrust; ‘They are a thievish race, nor do I care by whom they are adopted; you can never make anything of them but skulks and vagabond.‘”

″‘When a man consorts much with a people,’ continued Hawk-eye, ′ if they are honest, and he no knave, love will grow up atwixt them.‘”

″... he saved my life in the coolest and readiest manner, and he has made a friend who never will require to be reminded of the debt he owes.”

“‘Heaven protect me from a prejudice so unworthy of my reason!’ returned Duncan, at the same time conscious of such a feeling, and that as deeply rooted as if it had been engrafted in his nature.”

“During this act of friendship, the two young men exchanged looks of intelligence, which caused Duncan to forget the character and condition of his wild associate.”

“Twould have been a cruel and an unhuman act for a white-skin; but ‘tis the gift and natur’ of an Indian, and I suppose it should not be denied.”

“I am not a prejudiced man, nor one who vaunts himself on his natural privileges, though the worst enemy I have on earth, and he is an Iroquois, daren’t deny that I am genuine white.”

“It was a feature peculiar to the colonial wars of North America, that the toils and dangers of the wilderness were to be encountered before the adverse hosts could meet.”

″‘And I tell you that he who is born a Mingo will die a Mingo,’ returned the other, positively. ‘A Mohawk! No give me a Delaware...‘”

“My day has been too long. In the morning I saw the sons of the Unarms happy and strong; and yet, before the sun has come, have I lived to see the last warrior of the wise race of the Mohicans.”

“God gave him enough, and yet he wants all. Such are the pale-faces.”

“Tell them, that the Being we all worship, under different names, will be mindful of their charity; and that the time shall not be distant, when we may assemble around his throne, without distinction of sex, or rank, or color!”

“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.”

“Books! What have such as I, who am a warrior of the wilderness, though a man without a cross, to do with books? I never read but in one, and the words that are written there are too simple and too plain to need much schooling...”

“Not so, however, with the besieged. Animated by the words, and stimulated by the examples of their leaders, they had found their courage, and maintained their ancient reputation, with a zeal that did justice to the stern character of their commander.”

“Every trail has its end, and every calamity brings its lesson!”

“The manner of the scout was seriously impressive, though no longer distinguished by any signs of unmanly apprehension. It was evident that his momentary weakness had vanished with the explanation of a mystery which his own experience had not served to fathom...”

“My tribe is the grandfather of nations, but I am an unmixed man. The blood of chiefs is in my veins, where it must stay forever.”

″‘Wisdom is sometimes given to the young, as well as to the old,’ he said; ‘and what you have spoken is wise, not to call it by a better word.‘”