Zitate von James Fenimore Cooper
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James Fenimore Cooper
Geburtstag: 15. September 1789
Todesdatum: 14. September 1851
Andere Namen:Кепер Жеймс Фенимор,جیمز فنیمور کوپر
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James Fenimore Cooper war ein amerikanischer Schriftsteller der Romantik.
Cooper ist in vielerlei Hinsicht eine Schlüsselfigur der amerikanischen Literatur. Neben Washington Irving war er der erste amerikanische Schriftsteller, der von seinen Büchern leben konnte. Er blieb bis weit in das 20. Jahrhundert hinein auch in Europa der wohl meistgelesene. Nach dem Vorbild Sir Walter Scotts schrieb er die ersten historischen Romane und die ersten Seefahrtsromane der amerikanischen Literatur. Sein umfangreiches Werk umfasst weiter zahlreiche historiografische Werke, Essays und Satiren über Amerika wie Europa. Besonders bekannt sind bis heute seine fünf „Lederstrumpf“-Romane, die die Erschließung des amerikanischen Westens durch weiße Scouts, Trapper und Siedler, aber auch die allmähliche Zurückdrängung und Vernichtung der indianischen Kultur thematisieren.
Zitate James Fenimore Cooper
„Geduld ist eine Tugend an einem Indianer und kann einem christlichen Weißen nicht zur Schande gereichen.“
— James Fenimore Cooper
Die Steppe (Fenimore Cooper's ausgewählte Romane, 6. Band, Neue Ausgabe), Sauerländer Frankfurt/Main 1839, 29. Kapitel Seite 375 Google Books)
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„The powers, and faculties, and principles that are necessary fully to comprehend all that we see and all that surrounds us, exist and have been bestowed on man by his beneficent Creator. Still, it is only by slow degrees that he is to become their master, acquiring knowledge, step by step, as he has need of its services, and learns how to use it. Such seems to be the design of Providence, which is gradually opening to our inquiries the arcana of nature, in order that we may convert their possession into such uses as will advance its own wise intentions. Happy are they who feel this truth in their character of individuals! Thrice happy the nations which can be made to understand, that the surest progress is that which is made on the clearest principles, and with the greatest caution! The notion of setting up anything new in morals, is as fallacious in theory as it will be found to be dangerous in practice.“
— James Fenimore Cooper
Ch. XXI
„Parson Amen's speculations on this interesting subject, although this may happen to be the first occasion on which he has ever heard the practice of taking scalps justified by Scripture. Viewed in a proper spirit, they ought merely to convey a lesson of humility, by rendering apparent the wisdom, nay the necessity, of men's keeping them-selves within the limits of the sphere of knowledge they were designed to fill, and convey, when rightly considered, as much of a lesson to the Puseyite, with abstractions that are quite as unintelligible to himself as they are to others; to the high-wrought and dogmatical Calvinist, who in the midst of his fiery zeal, forgets that love is the very essence of the relation between God and man; to the Quaker, who seems to think the cut of a coat essential to salvation; to the descendant of the Puritan, who whether he be Socinian, Calvinist, Universalist, or any other "1st," appears to believe that the "rock" on which Christ declared he would found his church was the "Rock of Plymouth"; and to the unbeliever, who, in deriding all creeds, does not know where to turn to find one to substitute in their stead. Humility, in matters of this sort, is the great lesson that all should teach and learn; for it opens the way to charity, and eventually to faith, and through both of these to hope; finally, through all of these, to heaven.“
— James Fenimore Cooper
Ch. XI
„It is better for a man to die at peace with himself than to live haunted by an evil conscience.“
— James Fenimore Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans (1826), Ch. 8
„Tis grand! 'tis solemn! 'tis an education of itself to look upon!“
— James Fenimore Cooper
The Deerslayer (1841), Ch. 6
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„One of the most melancholy consequences of this habit of deferring to other nations, and to other systems, is the fact that it causes us to undervalue the high blessings we so peculiarly enjoy; to render us ungrateful towards God, and to make us unjust to our fellow men, by throwing obstacles in their progress towards liberty.“
— James Fenimore Cooper
A Letter to His Countrymen (1834)
„Trust to HIM. There are days in which the sun is not seen—when a lurid darkness brings a second night over the earth. It matters not. The great luminary is always there. There may be clouds before his face, but the winds will blow them away. The man or the people that trust in God will find a lake for every See-wise.“
— James Fenimore Cooper
[http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2328/2328-h/2328-h.htm The Lake Gun] (1851)
„There is something so gratifying to human vanity in fancying ourselves superior to most around us, that we believe few young men attain their majority without imbibing more or less of the taint of unbelief, and passing through the mists of a vapid moral atmosphere, before they come to the clear, manly, and yet humble perceptions that teach most of us, in the end, our own insignificance, the great benevolence as well as wisdom of the scheme of redemption, and the philosophy of the Christian religion, as well as its divinity.
Perhaps the greatest stumbling-block of the young is a disposition not to yield to their belief unless it conforms to their own crude notions of propriety and reason. If the powers of man were equal to analyzing the nature of the Deity, to comprehending His being, and power, and motives, there would be some little show of sense in thus setting up the pretence of satisfying our judgments in all things, before we yield our credence to a religious system. But the first step we take brings with it the instructive lesson of our incapacity, and teaches the wholesome lesson of humility. From arrogantly claiming a right to worship a deity we comprehend, we soon come to feel that the impenetrable veil that is cast around the Godhead is an indispensable condition of our faith, reverence, and submission.“
— James Fenimore Cooper
Preface
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„I do not pretend to understand why such a sacrifice should be necessary, but I believe it, feel it; and believing and feeling it, I cannot but adore and worship the Son, who quitted heaven to come on earth, and suffered, that we might possess eternal life. It is all mystery to me, as is the creation itself, our existence, God himself, and all else that my mind is too limited to comprehend. But, Roswell, if I believe a part of the teachings of the Christian church, I must believe all. The apostles, who were called by Christ in person, who lived in his very presence, who knew nothing except as the Holy Spirit prompted, worshiped him as the Son of God, as one 'who thought it not robbery to be equal with God;' and shall I, ignorant and uninspired, pretend to set up my feeble means of reasoning, in opposition to their written instructions!"… I do not deny that we are to exercise our reason, but it is within the bounds set for its exercise. We may examine the evidence of Christianity, and determine for ourselves how far it is supported by reasonable and sufficient proofs; beyond this we cannot be expected to go, else might we be required to comprehend the mystery of our own existence, which just as much exceeds our understanding as any other. We are told that man was created in the image of his Creator, which means that there is an immortal and spiritual part of him that is entirely different from the material creature One perishes, temporarily at least--a limb can be severed from the body and perish, even while the body survives; but it is not so with that which has been created in the image of the deity. That is imperishable, immortal, spiritual, though doomed to dwell awhile in a tenement of clay. Now, why is it more difficult to believe that pure divinity may have entered into the person of one man, than to believe, nay to feel, that the image of God has entered into the persons of so many myriads of men?“
— James Fenimore Cooper
Ch. XII
„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.“
— James Fenimore Cooper
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Pilot-A-Tale-Sea/dp/1490555811 The Pilot: A Tale of the Sea] (1829); Preface
