“[In] the national and religious conflict of the [Byzantine and Saracen] empires, peace was without confidence, and war without mercy.”
“[Every] hour of delay abates the fame and force of the invader, and multiplies the resources of defensive war.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The single combats of the heroes of history or fable amuse our fancy and engage our affections: the skillful evolutions of war may inform the mind, and improve a necessary, though pernicious, science. But in the uniform and odious pictures of a general assault, all is blood, and horror, and confusion . . .”
Source: 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
“Feeble and timid minds . . . consider the use of dilatory and ambiguous measures as the most admirable efforts of consummate prudence.”
Source: 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
“The nations, and the sects, of the Roman world, admitted with equal credulity, and similar abhorrence, the reality of that infernal art [witchcraft], which was able to control the eternal order of the planets, and the voluntary operations of the human mind. . . . They believed, with the wildest inconsistency, that this preternatural dominion of the air, of earth, and of hell, was exercised, from the vilest motives of malice or gain, by some wrinkled hags and itinerant sorcerers, who passed their obscure lives in penury and contempt.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“[Personal] industry must be faint and languid, which is not excited by the sense of personal interest.”
Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“A false modesty is the meanest species of pride.”
Source: Memoires of the Life and Writings of Edward Gibbon, Esq
“[Courage] arises in a great measure from the consciousness of strength . . .”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Bad roads and indifferent inns, ... the continual converse one is obliged to have with the vilest part of mankind - innkeepers, post-masters, and custom house officers.”
Source: Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 1 (of 2)
“In the end, more than freedom, they wanted security. They wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all – security, comfort, and freedom. When the Athenians finally wanted not to give to society but for society to give to them, when the freedom they wished for most was freedom from responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free and was never free again.”
“The policy of the emperors and the senate, as far as it concerned religion, was happily seconded by the reflections of the enlightened, and by the habits of the superstitious, part of their subjects. 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. And thus toleration produced not only mutual indulgence, but even religious concord.”
“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.”
Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition
“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.”
“To an active mind, indolence is more painful than labor.”
Source: Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)
“The most worthless of mankind are not afraid to condemn in others the same disorders which they allow in themselves; and can readily discover some nice difference in age, character, or station, to justify the partial distinction.”
Source: 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
“War, in its fairest form, implies a perpetual violation of humanity and justice.”
Source: 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
“To a lover of books the shops and sales in London present irresistible temptations.”
Source: The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, with notes by Milman and Guizot. Ed. by W. Smith
“The history of empires is the record of human misery; the history of the sciences is that of the greatness and happiness of mankind.”
“I was never less alone than when by myself.”
Source: Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esquire
“The best and most important part of every man's education is that which he gives himself.”
“The voice of history is often little more than the organ of hatred or flattery.”
Source: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V1: the History Focus
“In old age the consolation of hope is reserved for the tenderness of parents, who commence a new life in their children, the faith of enthusiasts, who sing hallelujahs above the clouds; and the vanity of authors, who presume the immortality of their name and writings.”
Source: Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Edward Gibbon, 1
“The first of earthly blessings, independence.”
Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Our ignorance is God; what we know is science.”
“There is more pleasure to building castles in the air than on the ground.”
Source: The Autobiography and Correspondence of Edward Gibbon, the Historian
“On the approach of spring, I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.”
“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.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.”
Source: The Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon: With Memoirs of His Life and Writing Composed by Himself, Illustrated from His Letters with Occasional Notes and Narrative
“Fanaticism obliterates the feelings of humanity.”
Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“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.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The gravest of the ecclesiastical historians, Eusebius himself, indirectly confesses that he has related whatever might redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could tend to the disgrace, of religion.”
Source: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Style is the image of character.”
Source: Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esquire: With Memoirs of His Life and Writings
“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.”
“'I believe in one God and Mohammed the Apostle of God,' is the simple and invariable profession of Islam. The intellectual image of the Deity has never been degraded by any visible idol; the honours of the prophet have never transgressed the measure of human virtue, and his living precepts have restrained the gratitude of his disciples within the bounds of reason and religion.”
Source: 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
“So long as mankind shall continue to lavish more praise upon its destroyers than upon its benefactors war shall remain the chief pursuit of ambitious minds.”
“The mathematics are distinguished by a particular privilege, that is, in the course of ages, they may always advance and can never recede.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“In the end, they wanted security more than they wanted freedom.”
“The first and indispensable requisite of happiness is a clear conscience.”
Source: The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire, with notes by Milman and Guizot. Ed. by W. Smith
“I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.”
“Truth, naked, unblushing truth, the first virtue of all serious history, must be the sole recommendation of this personal narrative.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave.”
“Every event, or appearance, or accident, which seems to deviate from the ordinary course of nature has been rashly ascribed to the immediate action of the Deity.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“History, in fact, is no more than a list of the crimes of humanity, human follies and accidents”
“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.”
“The value of money has been settled by general consent to express our wants and our property, as letters were invented to express our ideas; and both these institutions, by giving a more active energy to the powers and passions of human nature, have contributed to multiply the objects they were designed to represent.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“Where error is irreparable, repentance is useless.”
Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
“It is scarcely possible that the eyes of contemporaries should discover in the public felicity the latent causes of decay and corruption. This long peace, and the uniform government of the Romans, introduced a slow and secret poison into the vitals of the empire. The minds of men were gradually reduced to the same level, the fire of genius was extinguished, and even the military spirit evaporated.”
“Hope, the best comfort of our imperfect condition, was not denied to the Roman slave; and if he had any opportunity of rendering himself either useful or agreeable, he might very naturally expect that the diligence and fidelity of a few years would be rewarded with the inestimable gift of freedom.”
Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition
