James Gould Cozzens Quotes

6 Sourced Quotes

Bailey might not have great intelligence or abilities, but his whole aim, thought and study was that of the born leader—to look out for himself; and he did it with that born-leader's confidence and intensity that draws along the ordinary uncertain man, who soon confuses his own interest and his own safety with that of the leader.

James Gould Cozzens
In its wisdom, the law said: No man shall be the judge of his own cause. [...] The law, nothing but reason, took judicial notice of man's nature, of how far his conscience could guide him against his interest. For the slake of others, for his own sake, the law would not let him be led into temptation. In its wisdom, the law aimed only at certainty, could not, did not, really hope to get there. This science, as inexact as medicine, must do its justice with the imprecision of wisdom, the pragmatism of a long, a mighty experience. Those balances were to weigh, not what was just in general, but which might be just between these actual adversaries.

James Gould Cozzens
I have no thesis except that people get a very raw deal from life.

James Gould Cozzens
The first test of ability and intelligence is to find a field of endeavor in which profits are large and risks small.

James Gould Cozzens
A cynic is just a man who found out when he was about ten that there wasn't any Santa Claus, and he's still upset.

James Gould Cozzens
The innocent supposition, entertained by most people, that even if they are not brilliant, they are not dumb, is correct only in a very relative sense.

James Gould Cozzens