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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

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

Men Common Cities Fortune Graves Empires Spares Roman Empire Vicissitudes

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

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

“Every man who rises above the common level has received two educations: the first from his teachers; the second, more personal and important, from himself.”

Men Firsts Two Important Levels Common Education Teacher Teaching Intellectual Every Man Rise Above

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)

“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

“But this inestimable privilege was soon violated: with the knowledge of truth the emperor imbibed the maxims of persecution; and the sects which dissented from the catholic church were afflicted and oppressed by the triumph of Christianity. Constantine easily believed that the heretics, who presumed to dispute his opinions or to oppose his commands, were guilty of the most absurd and criminal obstinacy; and that a seasonable application of moderate severities might save those unhappy men from the danger of an everlasting condemnation.”

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

“At that time the archiepiscopal throne of Alexandria was filled by Theophilus, the perpetual enemy of peace and virtue; a bold, bad man, whose hands were alternately polluted with gold and with blood.”

Men Hands Enemy History Virtue Blood Gold Filled Perpetual Thrones Roman Empire Bad Man Alexandria

Book:History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V3: the History Focus

Source: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire V3: the History Focus

“So natural to man is the practice of violence that our indulgence allows the slightest provocation, the most disputable right, as a sufficient ground of national hostility.”

Men Natural Practice Violence Sufficient Hostility Indulgence Provocation

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

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

“That country [Carthage] was rapidly sinking into the state of barbarism from whence it had been raised by the Phoenician colonies and Roman laws; and every step of intestine discord was marked by some deplorable victory of savage man over civilized society.”

Men Country States Law Steps Victory Raised Civilized Savages Every Step Sinking Colony Barbarism Discord Civilized Society Intestines Carthage Phoenicians

Book: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

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

“The land was then covered with morasses and forests, which spread to a boundless extent, whenever man has ceased to exercise his dominion over the earth.”

Men Earth Land Exercise Spread Forests Covered Dominion Boundless

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

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

“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

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

Men Should Character Law Belief Tales Laws Of Nature Deviate

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

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

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

Men Has Beens Art Language Perfect Greek

Author:Edward Gibbon

“Man has much more to fear from the passions of his fellow-creatures, than from the convulsions of the elements.”

Men Passion Creatures Elements Fellows

Book: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

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

“[But] the man who dares not expose his life in the defence of his children and his property, has lost in society the first and most active energies of nature.”

Men Firsts Children Energy Lost He Man Property Dare Active Defence

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

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

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

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 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.”

Men Sometimes Age Loss Fields Victory Thousand Ten Possession Sufficient Bloody

Book:Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)

Source: Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)

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

Men Giving Important School Education Every Man Self Education

Author:Edward Gibbon

“The historian must have some conception of how men who are not historians behave.”

Men History Behave Conception Historian

Author:Edward Gibbon

“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

“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.”

Men Should Mind Long Government Eye Spirit Causes Levels Secret History Fire Military Genius Corruption Poison Empires Decay Uniforms Roman Empire Felicity Latent

Author:Edward Gibbon

“The most sublime efforts of philosophy can extend no farther than feebly to point out the desire, the hope, or, at most, the probability, of a future state, there is nothing, except a divine revelation, that can ascertain the existence, and describe the condition of the invisible country which is destined to receive the souls of men after their separation from the body.”

Men Soul Country States Philosophy Body Desire Effort Existence Conditions Divine Separation Invisible Revelations Sublime Probability Destined Divine Revelation

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