Top 25 Quotes by Edward Gibbon of 355 - Page 3

Yet the arts of Severus cannot be justified by the most ample privileges of state reason. He promised only to betray; he flattered only to ruin; and however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his

Yet the arts of Severus cannot be justified by the most ample privileges of state reason. He promised only to betray; he flattered only to ruin; and however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his conscience, obsequious to his interest, always released him from the inconvenient obligation.

Edward Gibbon

Art, History, Might

Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.100, Wordsworth Editions

In the most rigorous [Roman] laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, or sacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as it should seem, might have been dissolved by the hand of the executioner.

Edward Gibbon

Law, Hands, Wife

Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, Guizot (M., François), Sir William Smith (1862). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.298

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

Edward Gibbon

Art, Book, Writing

Edward Gibbon (1814). “The Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon: With Memoirs of His Life and Writings”, p.56

But the wisdom and authority of the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of private interest.

Edward Gibbon

Dexterity, Authority, Interest

Edward Gibbon (2016). “The Collected Works of Edward Gibbon: Historical Works, Autobiographical Writings and Private Letters, Including The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.1156, e-artnow

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

Edward Gibbon

Christian, Believe, Mind

Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.264, Wordsworth Editions

Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder.

Edward Gibbon

Fate, Unhappy, Might

Edward Gibbon, William George Smith (1857). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.75

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

Edward Gibbon

War, Aversion, Sovereign

Edward Gibbon, Francis Parkman, William H. Prescott, Theodore Roosevelt (2012). “The Modern Library Essential World History 4-Book Bundle: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Abridged); Montcalm and Wolfe; History of the Conquest of Mexico; The Naval War of 1812”, p.886, Modern Library

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

Edward Gibbon

History, Age, Might

Edward Gibbon (1825). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 3: Complete in Eight Volumes”, p.186

In the second century of the Christian era, the Empire of Rome comprehended the fairest part of the earth, and the most civilised portion of mankind. The frontiers of that extensive monarchy were guarded by ancient renown and disciplined valour. The gentle but powerful influence of laws and manners had gradually cemented the union of the provinces. Their peaceful inhabitants enjoyed and abused the advantages of wealth and luxury.

Edward Gibbon

Christian, Powerful, Luxury

Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.3, Wordsworth Editions

Flattery is a foolish suicide; she destroys herself with her own hands.

Edward Gibbon

Suicide, Hands, Flattery

Edward Gibbon (1787). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire”, p.401

The Germans, in the age of Tacitus, were unacquainted with the use of letters; and the use of letters is the principal circumstance that distinguishes a civilised people from a herd of savages incapable of knowledge or reflection. Without that artificial help, the human memory soon dissipates or corrupts the ideas intrusted to her charge; and the nobler faculties of the mind, no longer supplied with models or with materials, gradually forget their powers; the judgment becomes feeble and lethargic, the imagination languid or irregular.

Edward Gibbon

Memories, Reflection, Ideas

Edward Gibbon (1854). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.354

Pleasure and guilt are synonymous terms in the language of the monks, and they discovered, by experience, that rigid fasts, and abstemious diet, are the most effectual preservatives against the impure desires of the flesh.

Edward Gibbon

Guilt, Desire, Flesh

Edward Gibbon (2016). “THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (All 6 Volumes): From the Height of the Roman Empire, the Age of Trajan and the Antonines - to the Fall of Byzantium; Including a Review of the Crusades, and the State of Rome during the Middle Ages”, p.1728, e-artnow

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

Edward Gibbon

Fall, Rome, Christianity

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

Edward Gibbon

Freedom, Desire, Liberty

Edward Gibbon (1839). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.127

The distinctions of personal merit and influence, so conspicuous in a republic, so feeble and obscure under a monarchy, were abolished by the despotism of the emperors; who substituted in their room a severe subordination of rank and office, from the titled slaves who were seated on the steps of the throne, to the meanest instruments of arbitrary power.

Edward Gibbon

History, Office, Thrones

Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.325, Modern Library

The theologian 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. 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.

Edward Gibbon

Errors, Race, Long

Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.237, Modern Library

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

Edward Gibbon

Principles, Tribes, Language

EDWARD GIBBON, ESQ. (1838). “THE HISTORY OF THE DECLIINE AND FALL OF THE EMPIRE”, p.338

[It] is the interest as well as duty of a sovereign to maintain the authority of the laws.

Edward Gibbon

Law, Sovereign, Authority

Edward Gibbon (1854). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.51

I have somewhere heard or read the frank confession of a Benedictine abbot: "My vow of poverty has given me a hundred thousand crowns a year; my vow of obedience has raised me to the rank of a sovereign prince." - I forget the consequences of his vow of chastity.

Edward Gibbon

Years, Crowns, Poverty

Edward Gibbon (2016). “THE HISTORY OF THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE (All 6 Volumes): From the Height of the Roman Empire, the Age of Trajan and the Antonines - to the Fall of Byzantium; Including a Review of the Crusades, and the State of Rome during the Middle Ages”, p.1758, e-artnow

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

Edward Gibbon

Christian, Atheist, Tyrants

Edward Gibbon (1840). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire”, p.100

The difference of language, dress, and manners . . . severs and alienates the nations of the globe.

Edward Gibbon

Differences, Dresses, Language

Edward Gibbon (1869). “The Crusades: A.D. 1095-1261”, p.81

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

Edward Gibbon

Love, Book, Reading

[The monks'] credulity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind: they corrupted the evidence of history; and superstition gradually extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science.

Edward Gibbon

Philosophy, Light, Mind

Edward Gibbon (2000). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume II: A.D. 395 to A.D. 1185 (A Modern Library E-Book)”, p.560, Modern Library