Edward Gibbon quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Edward Gibbon on Wise Famous Quotes.

And it was the part of a wise man to forget inevitable calamities of human life in the enjoyment of the fleeting hour.

Boethius might have been styled happy, if that precarious epithet could be safely applied before the last term of the life of man.

The great work of Gibbon is indispensable to the student of history. The literature of Europe offers no substitute for "The

A society in which marriage is encouraged and industry prevails soon repairs the accidental losses of pestilence and war.

I darted a contemptuous look at the stately models of superstition.

Amiable weaknesses of human nature.

The science of the laws is the slow growth of time and experience.

A reformer should be exempt from the suspicion of interest, and he must possess the confidence and esteem of those whom he proposes to reclaim.

In discussing Barbarism and Christianity I have actually been discussing the Fall of Rome.

Does there exist a single instance of a saint asserting that he himself possessed the gift of miracles?

It is the common calamity of old age to lose whatever might have rendered it desirable ...

[All] the manly virtues were oppressed by the servile and pusillanimous reign of the monks.

Persuasion is the resource of the feeble; and the feeble can seldom persuade ...

[Courage] arises in a great measure from the consciousness of strength ...

Revenge is profitable, gratitude is expensive.

It has been sagaciously conjectured, that the artful legislator indulged the stubborn prejudices of his countrymen.

A taste for books, which is still the pleasure and glory of my life.

[The] noblest of [Arabs] united the love of arms with the profession of merchandise.

The Roman government appeared every day less formidable to its enemies, more odious and oppressive to its subjects.

Our sympathy is cold to the relation of distant misery.

Since the primitive times, the wealth of the popes was exposed to envy, their powers to opposition, and their persons to violence.

The patient and active virtues of a soldier are insensibly nursed in the habits and discipline of a pastoral life.

And it was an inflexible maxim of Roman discipline, that a good soldier should dread his officers far more than the enemy.

Imam Hussain's sacrifice is for all groups and communities, an example of the path of rightousness.

The separation of the Arabs from the rest of mankind has accustomed them to confound the ideas of stranger and enemy.

In reality, Rome had grown too big for lots of people to handle its vast affairs any longer by committee.

I have but one lamp by which my feet are guided, and that is the lamp of experience. I know no way of judging of the future but by the past.

[Personal] industry must be faint and languid, which is not excited by the sense of personal interest.

The first and indispensable requisite of happiness is a clear conscience.

Style is the image of character.

[The] operation of the wisest laws is imperfect and precarious. They seldom inspire virtue, they cannot always restrain vice.

[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war.

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

I was never less alone than when by myself.

The revenge of a guilty woman is implacable.

The communication of ideas requires a similitude of thought and language ...

[The] vain and transitory scenes of human greatness are unworthy of a serious thought.

War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.

Yet the civilians have always respected the natural right of a citizen to dispose of his life ...

Greek is doubtless the most perfect [language] that has been contrived by the art of man.

To an active mind, indolence is more painful than labor.

Many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant.

A false modesty is the meanest species of pride.

The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraordinary events

The fortune of nations has often depended on accidents ...

History should be to the political economist a wellspring of experience and wisdom.

It was among the ruins of the capitol that I first conceived the idea of a work which has amused and exercised nearly twenty years of my life.

I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.

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

It was here that I suspended my religious inquiries (aged 17).

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

Religion is a mere question of geography.

There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground.

Of human life, the most glorious or humble prospects are alike and soon bounded by the sepulchre.

He forgot that the best of omens is to unsheathe our sword in the defence of our country.

Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war.

[Peace] cannot be honorable or secure, if the sovereign betrays a pusillanimous aversion to war.

Fear has been the original parent of superstition, every new calamity urges trembling mortals to deprecate the wrath of invisible enemies

Another d-mn'd thick, square book! Always, scribble, scribble, scribble! Eh! Mr. Gibbon?

[In] the national and religious conflict of the [Byzantine and Saracen] empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy.

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

Our toil is lessened, and our wealth is increased, by our dominion over the useful animals ...

All that is human must retrograde if it does not advance.

To a philosophic eye, the vices of the clergy are far less dangerous than their virtues.

Corruption, the most infallible symptom of constitutional liberty.

[We should] suspend our belief of every tale that deviates from the laws of nature and the character of man.

The mathematics are distinguished by a particular privilege, that is, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never recede.

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

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

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

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.

Active valour may often be the present of nature; but such patient diligence can be the fruit only of habit and discipline.

They soon experienced, that those who refuse the sword must renounce the sceptre.

From the paths of blood (and such is the history of nations) I cannot refuse to turn aside to gather some flowers of science or virtue.

The inactivity of a conqueror betrays the loss of strength and blood ...

The best and most important part of every man's education is that which he gives himself.

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

The monastic studies have tended, for the most part, to darken, rather than to dispel, the cloud of superstition.

But a wild democracy ... too often disdains the essential principles of justice.

Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.

[Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.

It was no longer esteemed infamous for a Roman to survive his honor and independence.

The criminal penalties [for suicide] are the production of a later and darker age.

The vain, inconstant, rebellious disposition of the people [of Armorica], was incompatible either with freedom or servitude.

It was an inflexible maxim of Roman discipline that good soldier should dread his own officers far more than the enemy

Language is the leading principle which unites or separates the tribes of mankind.

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

During many ages, the prediction, as it is usual, contributed to its own accomplishment.

Recluse fanatics have few ideas or sentiments to communicate ...

But a law, however venerable be the sanction, cannot suddenly transform the temper of the times ...

Extreme distress, which unites the virtue of a free people, imbitters the factions of a declining monarchy.

[Arabs are] a people, whom it is dangerous to provoke, and fruitless to attack.

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

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

The most distinguished merit of those two officers was their respective prowess, of the one in the combats of Bacchus, of the other in those of Venus.

History has scarcely deigned to notice [Libius Severus's] birth, his elevation, his character, or his death.

The progress of despotism tends to disappoint its own purpose.

But the works of man are impotent against the assaults of nature ...

In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.

The sentiment of fear is nearly allied to that of hatred.