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Edward Gibbon

Edward Gibbon Quotes

Historian

Edward Gibbon was an English historian renowned for his magnum opus, 'The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'. His work has had a profound impact on historical studies.

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All Roman Empire History Humans May Mind Virtue Age Law People Ifs Empires War World Men Mankind Rome Might Reason Firsts Years

Famous Edward Gibbon Quotes

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

Ifs Humans Doe Wisdom Growth Human Nature Progression Roman Empire Human Progress Retrograde

Author:Edward Gibbon

“A state of skepticism and suspense may amuse a few inquisitive minds. But the practice of superstition is so congenial to the multitude that, if they are forcibly awakened, they still regret the loss of their pleasing vision.”

Ifs Mind May Stills States Loss Vision Practice Atheism Regret Positive Atheism Suspense Superstitions Skepticism Multitudes Awakened Inquisitive Inquisitive Minds

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“Under a democratical government the citizens exercise the powers of sovereignty; and those powers will be first abused, and afterwards lost, if they are committed to an unwieldy multitude.”

Ifs Firsts Government Lost History Citizens Exercise Committed Multitudes Sovereignty Roman Empire

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“There are two very natural propensities which we may distinguish in the most virtuous and liberal dispositions, the love of pleasure and the love of action. If the former is refined by art and learning, improved by the charms of social intercourse, and corrected by a just regard to economy, to health, and to reputation, it is productive of the greatest part of the happiness of private life.”

Source: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V1: the History Focus

“The love of action is a principle of a much stronger and more doubtful nature. It often leads to anger, to ambition, and to revenge; but when it is guided by the sense of propriety and benevolence, it becomes the parent of every virtue, and, if those virtues are accompanied with equal abilities, a family, a state, or an empire may be indebted for their safety and prosperity to the undaunted courage of a single man.”

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“The chaste severity of the fathers in whatever related to the commerce of the two sexes flowed from the same principle -- their abhorrence of every enjoyment which might gratify the sensual and degrade the spiritual nature of man. It was their favourite opinion, that if Adam had preserved his obedience to the Creator, he would have lived for ever in a state of virgin purity, and that some harmless mode of vegetation might have peopled paradise with a race of innocent and immortal beings.”

Source: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V1: the History Focus

“If this Punic war was carried on without any effusion of blood, it was owing much less to the moderation than to the weakness of the contending prelates.”

Ifs War History Blood Weakness Moderation Roman Empire Owing Contending

Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

“History, which undertakes to record the transactions of the past, for the instruction of future ages, would ill deserve that honourable office if she condescended to plead the cause of tyrants, or to justify the maxims of persecution.”

Ifs Age Past Causes History Records Office Deserve Ill Justify Tyrants Instruction Persecution Maxims Roman Empire Transactions

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“The philosopher, who with calm suspicion examines the dreams and omens, the miracles and prodigies, of profane or even of ecclesiastical history, will probably conclude that, if the eyes of the spectators have sometimes been deceived by fraud, the understanding of the readers has much more frequently been insulted by fiction.”

Source: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V2: the History Focus

“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.”

Ifs Should May Heaven Wealth History Rich Absolutes Saint Merit Expenses Republic Idle Favour Roman Empire Charitable Monarchs Industrious Constantine Patrimony

Book:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“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.”

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)

“Instructed by history and reflection, Julian was persuaded that, if the diseases of the body may sometimes be cured by salutary violence, neither steel nor fire can eradicate the erroneous opinions of the mind.”

Ifs Mind May Sometimes Body Opinion History Fire Violence Disease Reflection Steel Roman Empire

Book:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“If Julian had flattered himself that his personal connexion with the capital of the East would be productive of mutual satisfaction to the prince and people, he made a very false estimate of his own character, and of the manners of Antioch. The warmth of the climate disposed the natives to the most intemperate enjoyment of tranquillity and opulence; and the lively licentiousness of the Greeks was blended with the hereditary softness of the Syrians.”

Source: The Student's Gibbon: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“The fabric of a mighty state, which has been reared by the labours of successive ages, could not be overturned by the misfortune of a single day, if the fatal power of the imagination did not exaggerate the real measure of the calamity.”

Ifs Has Beens Real States Age Imagination History Labour Misfortunes Fabric Calamity Roman Empire

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“A people who still remembered that their ancestors had been the masters of the world would have applauded, with conscious pride, the representation of ancient freedom, if they had not long since been accustomed to prefer the solid assurance of bread to the unsubstantial visions of liberty and greatness.”

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“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.”

Ifs May Government Enemy History Effects Produce Weak Assuming Appearance Ministers Council Distracted Pursued Roman Empire Correspondence Incapacity Public Enemies

Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

“If all the barbarian conquerors had been annihilated in the same hour, their total destruction would not have restored the empire of the West: and if Rome still survived, she survived the loss of freedom, of virtue, and of honour.”

Ifs Stills Hours Loss History Virtue Destruction West Empires Honour Rome Survived Barbarians Roman Empire Conqueror

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“If we are more affected by the ruin of a palace than by the conflagration of a cottage, our humanity must have formed a very erroneous estimate of the miseries of human life.”

Ifs Humans Humanity Sorrow Misery Ruins Human Life Affected Palaces Cottages

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“If we contrast the rapid progress of this mischievous discovery [gunpowder] with the slow and laborious advances of reason, science, and the arts of peace, a philosopher, according to his temper, will laugh or weep at the folly of mankind.”

Ifs Art Reason Laughing Progress Mankind Discovery Philosopher Folly Temper Contrast Rapids Mischievous Gunpowder

Author:Edward Gibbon

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

Ifs Men Has Beens Might Lasts Term Might Have Been Precarious Epithet

Book:The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

“A Locrian, who proposed any new law, stood forth in the assembly of the people with a cord round his neck, and if the law was rejected, the innovator was instantly strangled.”

People Ifs Law Rounds Necks Rejected Assembly Innovators Cords

Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

“[A] military force was collected in Europe, formidable by their arms and numbers, if the generals had understood the science of command, and the soldiers the duty of obedience.”

Ifs Force Numbers Military Duty Arms Understood Europe Soldier Command Obedience Formidable Military Force

Book:The Student's Gibbon: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Source: The Student's Gibbon: The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

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

Ifs War Secure Betray Honorable Sovereign Aversion

Book: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

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

“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.”

Ifs Men World Humans Names Race History Conditions Periods Historical Human Race World History Prosperous Hesitation Roman Empire

Author:Edward Gibbon

“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.”

Ifs Years Might Would Be Opportunity History Conditions Comfort Slave Denied Imperfect Fidelity Diligence Roman Empire Rendering

Book:The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition

Source: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition