“It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper aim, is most productive of evil.”
Author details
Related authors
Other James F. Cooper Quotes
The tendency of democracies is, in all things, to mediocrity.
James F. Cooper 
59% of people like this quote
It is a governing principle of nature, that the agency which can produce most good, when perverted from its proper aim, is most productive of evil.
James F. Cooper
59% of people like this quote
They who have reasoned ignorantly, or who have aimed at effecting their personal ends by flattering the popular feeling, have boldly affirmed that 'one man is as good as another;' a maxim that is true in neither nature, revealed morals, nor political theory.
James F. Cooper
58% of people like this quote
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.
James F. Cooper
58% of people like this quote
The very existence of government at all, infers inequality. The citizen who is preferred to office becomes the superior to those who are not, so long as he is the repository of power, and the child inherits the wealth of the parent as a controlling law of society.
James F. Cooper
55% of people like this quote