The Deerslayer Quotes

“Tis hard to live in a world where all look upon you as below them.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“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 Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“The woods are but the ears of the Almighty, the air is his breath, and the light of the sun is little more than a glance of his eye.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“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 Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“Judith:"And where, then, is your sweetheart, Deerslayer?"

Deerslayer: "She's in the forest, Judith - hanging from the boughs of the trees, in a soft rain - in the dew on the open grass - the clouds that float about in the blue heavens - the birds that sing in the woods - the sweet springs where I slake my thirst - and in all the other glorious gifts that come from God's Providence!”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“If a man believed all that other people choose to say in their own favor, he might get an oversized opinion of them, and an udersized opinion of himself.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“And where, then, is your sweetheart, Deerslayer?" "She's in the forest, Judith—hanging from the boughs of the trees, in a soft rain—in the dew on the open grass—the clouds that float about in the blue heavens—the birds that sing in the woods—the sweet springs where I slake my thirst—and in all the other glorious gifts that come from God's Providence!”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“The deer that goes too often to the lick meets the hunter at last!”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“When the colony's laws, or even the King's laws, run ag'in the laws of God, they get to be onlawful, and ought not to be obeyed.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“Nothing is easier to us who pass our time in the great school of Providence than to l’arn its lessons.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“Men are seldom struck by incongruities in their appearance any more than their own conduct.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“We live in a world of endless transgressions and selfishness, and no pictures that represent us otherwise can be true.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“The arches of the woods, even at high noon, cast their sombre shadows on the spot, which the brilliant rays of the sun that struggled through the leaves contributed to mellow, and if such an expression can be used, to illuminate. It was probably from a similar scene that the mind of man first got its idea of the effects of gothic tracery and churchly hues, this temple of nature producing some such effect, so far as light and shadow were concerned, as the well-known offspring of human invention.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“Whatever may be the changes produced by man, the eternal round of the seasons is unbroken.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“Content is a great fortifier of good looks.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“When men speak, they should say that which does not go in at one side of the head and out at the other. Their words shouldn't be feathers, so light that a wind which does not ruffle the water can blow them away.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“You must do to your enemies, as you wish your enemies would do to you.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“it is one of the consequences of aggression that it hardens the conscience, as the only means of quieting it.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“I’m as the Lord made me, and I wish to be accounted no better, nor any worse. Good looks I may not have, that is to say to a degree that the light minded and vain crave, but I hope I’m not altogether without some ricommend in the way of good conduct. There’s few nobler looking men to be seen than yourself, Hurry, and I know that I am not to expect any to turn their eyes on me, when such a one as you can be gazed on; but I do not know that a hunter is less expart with the rifle, or less to be relied on for food, because he does’n’t wish to stop at every shining spring he may meet to study his own countenance in the water.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“There is society where none intrudes,”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“Since we more commonly begin that history with the Revolution, events taking place before the Revolution are invested with an archaic quality usually associated with antiquity.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“has dropped into the river," said Hurry, after looking carefully along”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“I look upon the redmen to be quite as human as we are ourselves, Hurry. They have their gifts, and their religion, it's true; but that makes no difference in the end, when each will be judged according to his deeds and not according to his skin.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“I do not pretend that all that white men do is properly Christianized...”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“After all, what schoolmaster is a match for an Indian, in looking into natur’? Some people think they are only good on a trail, or the war-path, but I say that they are philosophers, and understand a man, as well as they understand a beaver, and a woman as well as they understand either.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“ON the human imagination, events produce the effects of time. Thus, he who has travelled far and seen much, is apt to fancy that he has lived long; and the history that most abounds in important incidents, soonest assumes the aspect of antiquity.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“His face would have had little to recommend it except youth, were it not for an expression that seldom failed to win upon those who had leisure to examine it, and to yield to the feeling of confidence it created. This expression was simply that of guileless truth, sustained by an earnestness of purpose, and a sincerity of feeling, that rendered it remarkable. At times this air of integrity seemed to be so simple as to awaken the suspicion of a want of the usual means to discriminate between artifice and truth, but few came in serious contact with the man, without losing this distrust in respect for his opinions and motives.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“It's wisest always to be so clad that our friends need not ask us for our names.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“...the Evil Spirit delights more to dwell in an artful body, than in one that has no cunning to work upon.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer

“Questions concerning the status of the western territories, the National Bank, the recent economic depression, and the Indian wars affected Cooper directly.”
― James Fenimore Cooper, The Deerslayer