Top 25 Quotes by Edward Gibbon of 355 - Page 4

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

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

Inspirational, Life, Wisdom

"History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire". Volume 6,

A bloody and complete victory has sometimes yielded no more than the possession of the field and the loss of ten thousand men has sometimes been sufficient to destroy, in a single day, the work of ages.

Edward Gibbon

Loss, Men, Victory

Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.1695, Delphi Classics

But in almost every province of the Roman world, an army of fanatics, without authority and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and the ruin of the fairest structures of antiquity still displays the ravages of those barbarians who alone had time and inclination to execute such laborious destruction.

Edward Gibbon

Army, Discipline, History

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.93, Modern Library

According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman.

Edward Gibbon

Law, Gentleman, Reason

Edward Gibbon (1826). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.540

The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners gives a lustre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the imagination. Luxurious entertainments, midnight dances, and licentious spectacles, present at once temptation and opportunity to female frailty. From such dangers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life.

Edward Gibbon

Opportunity, History, Giving

Edward Gibbon (1854). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, with notes by Milman and Guizot. Ed. by W. Smith”, p.363

Our work is the presentation of our capabilities.

Edward Gibbon

Inspirational, Motivational, Business

If the emperor had capriciously decreed the death of the most eminent and virtuous citizen of the republic, the cruel order would have been executed without hesitation by the ministers of open violence or of specious injustice. The caution, the delay, the difficulty with which he proceeded in the condemnation and punishment of a popular bishop, discovered to the world that the privileges of the church had already revived a sense of order and freedom in the Roman government.

Edward Gibbon

Order, Punishment, Government

Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.908, Delphi Classics

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

Edward Gibbon

Consciousness, Arise

Edward Gibbon (1855). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.162

It was the fashion of the times to attribute every remarkable event to the particular will of the Deity; the alterations of nature were connected, by an invisible chain, with the moral and metaphysical opinions of the human mind; and the most sagacious divines could distinguish, according to the colour of their respective prejudices, that the establishment of heresy tended to produce an earthquake, or that a deluge was the inevitable consequence of the progress of sin and error.

Edward Gibbon

Fashion, Earthquakes, Errors

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.1209, e-artnow

The imprudent Maximus disregarded these salutary considerations: he gratified his resentment and ambition; he saw the bleeding corpse of Valentinian at his feet; and he heard himself saluted Emperor by the unanimous voice of the senate and people. But the day of his inauguration was the last day of his happiness.

Edward Gibbon

Ambition, Voice, Feet

Edward Gibbon (2015). “History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V3: the History Focus”, p.235, 谷月社

An absolute monarch, who is rich without patrimony, may be charitable without merit; and Constantine too easily believed that he should purchase the favour of Heaven if he maintained the idle at the expense of the industrious, and distributed among the saints the wealth of the republic.

Edward Gibbon

History, Heaven, Saint

Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.388, Wordsworth Editions

A philosopher may deplore the eternal discords of the human race, but he will confess, that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest.

Edward Gibbon

Vanity, Race, Desire

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.714, Modern Library

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

Edward Gibbon

Math, Epic, Age

Edward Gibbon (1862). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.401

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

Edward Gibbon

Often Is, Discipline, History

Edward Gibbon (1802). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.26

The Gauls derided the hairy and gigantic savages of the North; their rustic manners, dissonant joy, voracious appetite, and their horrid appearance, equally disgusting to the sight and to the smell.

Edward Gibbon

Smell, Sight, Joy

Edward Gibbon (1789). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.245

Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way to the common feelings of mankind.

Edward Gibbon

Government, Law, Punishment

Edward Gibbon (1846). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.444

The incapacity of a weak and distracted government may often assume the appearance and produce the effects of a treasonable correspondence with the public enemy. If Alaric himself had been introduced into the council of Ravenna, he would probably have advised the same measures which were actually pursued by the ministers of Honorius.

Edward Gibbon

Government, History, Enemy

Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.563, Modern Library

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

Edward Gibbon

Envy, Violence, Wealth

Edward Gibbon (1855). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.191

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

Edward Gibbon

Ideas, Recluse, Communicate

Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.844, Modern Library

But [the Arabs'] friendship was venal, their faith inconstant, their enmity capricious: it was an easier task to excite than to disarm these roving barbarians; and, in the familiar intercourse of war, they learned to see, and to despise, the splendid weakness both of Rome and of Persia.

Edward Gibbon

War, Rome, Barbarians

Edward Gibbon (2013). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: The Modern Library Collection (Complete and Unabridged)”, p.894, Modern Library

Julian sincerely abhorred the system of oriental despotism which Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits of four score years, had established in the empire. A motive of superstition prevented the execution of the design which Julian had frequently meditated, of relieving his head from the weight of a costly diadem; but he absolutely refused the title of Dominus or Lord, a word which was grown so familiar to the ears of the Romans, that they no longer remembered its servile and humiliating origin.

Edward Gibbon

Years, History, Design

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.648, Modern Library

The science of the church is neglected for the study of geometry, and they lose sight of Heaven while they are employed in measuring the earth. Euclid is perpetually in their hands. Aristotle and Theophrastus are the objects of their admiration; and they express an uncommon reverence for the works of Galen. Their errors are derived from the abuse of the arts and sciences of the infidels, and they corrupt the simplicity of the gospel by the refinements of human reason.

Edward Gibbon

Art, Sight, Hands

Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.594, Delphi Classics

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

Edward Gibbon

Hatred, Sentiments

Edward Gibbon (1869). “The Crusades: A.D. 1095-1261”, p.53

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

Edward Gibbon

Religious, Inquiry, Suspended

'Memoirs of My Life' (1796) ch. 4

The peace of the Eastern church was invaded by a swarm of fanatics [monks], incapable of fear, or reason, or humanity; and the Imperial troops acknowledged, without shame, that they were much less apprehensive of an encounter with the fiercest Barbarians.

Edward Gibbon

Humanity, Church, Encounters

Edward Gibbon (1846). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.349

Edward Gibbon Quotes - Page 4

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