Edward Gibbon Quotes (58 Quotes)


    The ecclesiastical writers, who, in the heat of religious faction, are apt to despise the profane virtues of sincerity and moderation.

    The urgent consideration of the public safety may undoubtedly authorize the violation of every positive law. How far that or any other consideration may operate to dissolve the natural obligations of humanity and justice, is a doctrine of which I still desire to remain ignorant.

    We improve ourselves by victories over ourself. There must be contests, and we must win.

    A martial nobility and stubborn commons, possessed of arms, tenacious of property, and collected into constitutional assemblies form the only balance capable of preserving a free constitution against the enterprise of an aspiring prince.

    Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.


    Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition.


    The various modes of worship which prevailed in the Roman world were all considered by the people as equally true; by the philosopher as equally false; and by the magistrate as equally useful.


    My English text is chaste, and all licentious passages are left in the decent obscurity of a learned language.


    Unprovided with original learning, unformed in the habits of thinking, unskilled in the arts of composition, I resolved to write a book.

    If a man were called to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. 96180 A. D.

    I never make the mistake of arguing with people for whose opinions I have no respect.

    A heart to resolve, a head to contrive, and a hand to execute.

    The principles of a free constitution are irrecoverably lost, when the legislative power is nominated by the executive.

    I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps, the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind, by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future date of my History, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.

    As long as mankind shall continue to bestow more liberal applause on their destroyers than on their benefactors, the thirst of military glory will ever be the vice of the most exalted characters.

    I understand by this passion the union of desire, friendship, and tenderness, which is inflamed by a single female, which prefers her to the rest of her sex, and which seeks her possession as the supreme or the sole happiness of our being.

    It was at Rome, on the 15th of October, 1764, as I sat musing amidst the ruins of the Capitol, while the barefoot friars were singing vespers in the Temple of Jupiter, that the idea of writing the decline and fall of the city first started to my mind.

    The clergy successfully preached the doctrines of patience and pusillanimity the active virtues of society were discouraged and the last remains of a military spirit were buried in the cloister a large portion of public and private wealth was con

    Books are those faithful mirrors that reflect to our mind the minds of sages and heroes.

    The love of study, a passion which derives fresh vigor from enjoyment, supplies each day and hour with a perpetual source of independent and rational pleasure.

    Of the three Popes, John the Twenty-third was the first victim he fled and was brought back a prisoner the most scandalous charges were suppressed the Vicar of Christ was only accused of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and incest

    Truth, naked, unblushing truth, the first virtue of all serious history, must be the sole recommendation of this personal narrative.

    Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.

    Let us read with method, and propose to ourselves an end to which our studies may point. The use of reading is to aid us in thinking.

    On the approach of spring I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.

    The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.

    ... vicissitudes of fortune, which spares neither man nor the proudest of his works, which buries empires and cities in a common grave.



    It has always been my practice to cast a long paragraph in a single mould, to try it by my ear, to deposit it in my memory, but to suspend the action of the pen till I had given the last polish to my work.

    In the second century of the Christian era, the empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilized portion of mankind

    But the power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions where it is almost superfluous.

    Of London Crowds without company, dissipation without pleasure.

    The theologians may indulge the pleasing task of describing religion as she descended from Heaven, arrayed in her native purity. A more melancholy duty is imposed on the historian read journalist He must discover the inevitable mixture of error and corruption which she contracted in a long residence upon earth, among a weak and degenerate race of beings.

    Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.


    It has been calculated by the ablest politicians that no State, without becoming soon exhausted, can maintain above the hundredth part of its members in arms and idleness.

    The courage of a soldier is found to be the cheapest and most common quality of human nature.

    I am indeed rich, since my income is superior to my expenses, and my expense is equal to my wishes.

    History is indeed little more than the register of the crimes, follies, and misfortunes of mankind.

    The winds and the waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators.

    Conversation enriches the understanding, but solitude is the school of genius.

    My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.

    Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.

    The author himself is the best judge of his own performance; none has so deeply meditated on the subject; none is so sincerely interested in the event.

    Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

    Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.


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