IT is mere coincidence that Cooper was born in the year which produced The Power of Sympathy and that when he died Uncle Toms Cabin was passing through its serial stage, and yet the limits of his life mark almost exactly the first great period of American fiction. – Carl Clinton Van Doren

Humane sentiments are baseless, mad, and improper; they are incredibly feeble; never do they withstand the gainsaying passions, never do they resist bare necessity. – Marquis De Sade