Edward Gibbon Quotes - Page 14

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These idle disputants overlooked the invariable laws of nature, which have connected peace with innocence, plenty with industry, and safety with valour.

Edward Gibbon

Law, Safety, History

Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.600, Wordsworth Editions

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[Personal] industry must be faint and languid, which is not excited by the sense of personal interest.

Edward Gibbon

Excited, Interest, Personal Interest

Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.740, Wordsworth Editions

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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.

Edward Gibbon

Religious, Reflection, People

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ch. 2 (1776 - 1788)

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The terror of the Roman arms added weight and dignity to the moderation of the emperors. They preserved the peace by a constant preparation for war.

Edward Gibbon

War, Preparation, Weight

Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.15, Modern Library

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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.

Edward Gibbon

Art, Discovery, Laughing

The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire ch. 65 (1776 - 1788)

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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.

Edward Gibbon

Hope, Children, Writing

Edward Gibbon (1827). “Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Edward Gibbon, 1”, p.258

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On the approach of spring, I withdraw without reluctance from the noisy and extensive scene of crowds without company, and dissipation without pleasure.

Edward Gibbon

Spring, Crowds, April

"Memoirs". Book by Edward Gibbon, Vol. i. p. 116, 1796.

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I sighed as a lover, I obeyed as a son.

Edward Gibbon

Love, Son, Lovers

Memoirs of My Life ch. 4 (1796)

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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.

Edward Gibbon

Passion, Ideas, History

Edward Gibbon (1781). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.317

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A warlike nation like the Germans, without either cities, letters, arts, or money, found some compensation for this savage state in the enjoyment of liberty. Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.

Edward Gibbon

Art, Cities, History

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.359

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[The] events by which the fate of nations is not materially changed, leave a faint impression on the page of history, and the patience of the reader would be exhausted by the repetition of the same hostilities [between Rome and Persia], undertaken without cause, prosecuted without glory, and terminated without effect.

Edward Gibbon

Fate, Rome, Events

Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.800, Modern Library

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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.

Edward Gibbon

House, Inns, Masters

Edward Gibbon (2017). “Private Letters of Edward Gibbon (1753-1794) Volume 1 (of 2)”, p.4, Litres

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A taste for books, which is still the pleasure and glory of my life.

Edward Gibbon

Book, Taste, Glory

Edward Gibbon (1869). “The Autobiography and Correspondence of Edward Gibbon, the Historian”, p.330

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Where the subject lies so far beyond our reach, the difference between the highest and the lowest of human understandings may indeed be calculated as infinitely small; yet the degree of weakness may perhaps be measured by the degree of obstinacy and dogmatic confidence.

Edward Gibbon

Lying, Differences, History

Edward Gibbon (1840). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.13

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During the games of the Circus, he had, imprudently or designedly, performed the manumission of a slave in the presence of the consul. The moment he was reminded that he had trespassed on the jurisdiction of another magistrate, he condemned himself to pay a fine of ten pounds of gold, and embraced this public occasion of declaring to the world that he was subject, like the rest of his fellow-citizens, to the laws, and even to the forms, of the republic.

Edward Gibbon

Law, Games, History

Edward Gibbon, J. B. Bury (2012). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Edited in Seven Volumes with Introduction, Notes, Appendices, and Index”, p.427, Cambridge University Press

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The sectaries of a persecuted religion, depressed by fear, animated with resentment, and perhaps heated by enthusiasm, are seldom in a proper temper of mind calmly to investigate, or candidly to appreciate, the motives of their enemies, which often escape the impartial and discerning view even of those who are placed at a secure distance from the flames of persecution.

Edward Gibbon

Distance, Views, Flames

Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.307, Wordsworth Editions

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The love of freedom, so often invigorated and disgraced by private ambition, was reduced, among the licentious Franks, to the contempt of order, and the desire of impunity.

Edward Gibbon

Ambition, Order, Desire

Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.1719, Delphi Classics

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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.

Edward Gibbon

Reflection, Fire, History

Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.473, Wordsworth Editions

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[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.

Edward Gibbon

Children, Men, Firsts

Edward Gibbon (1855). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.155

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Majorian presents the welcome discovery of a great and heroic character, such as sometimes arise, in a degenerate age, to vindicate the honor of the human species.

Edward Gibbon

Character, Discovery, Honor

Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.1589, Delphi Classics

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In their censures of luxury the fathers are extremely minute and circumstantial; and among the various articles which excite their pious indignation, we may enumerate false hair, garments of any colour except white, instruments of music, vases of gold or silver, downy pillows, white bread, foreign wines, public salutations, the use of warm baths, and the practice of shaving the beard, which, according to Tertullian, is a lie against our own faces, and am impious attempt to improve the works of the Creator.

Edward Gibbon

Lying, Father, Wine

Edward Gibbon (1854). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.44

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To the love of pleasure we may therefore ascribe most of the agreeable, to the love of action we may attribute most of the useful and respectable, qualifications. The character in which both the one and the other should be united and harmonised would seem to constitute the most perfect idea of human nature.

Edward Gibbon

Character, Ideas, History

Edward Gibbon (1846). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.488

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The law of nature instructs most animals to cherish and educate their infant progeny. The law of reason inculcates to the human species the returns of filial piety.

Edward Gibbon

Animal, Law, Return

Edward Gibbon, François Guizot (1859). “Guizot's Gibbon: History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.86

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The virtue of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was of a severer and more laborious kind. It was the well-earned harvest of many a learned conference, of many a patient lecture, and many a midnight lucubration. At the age of twelve years, he embraced the rigid system of the Stoics, which taught him to submit his body to his mind, his passions to his reason; to consider virtue as the only good, vice as the only evil, all things external as things indifferent.

Edward Gibbon

Passion, Years, History

Edward Gibbon (1821). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.92

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Constantinople was the principal seat and fortress of Arianism; and, in a long interval of forty years, the faith of the princes and prelates who reigned in the capital of the East was rejected in the purer schools of Rome and Alexandria.

Edward Gibbon

School, Rome, Years

Edward Gibbon (1840). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.299

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Born: April 27, 1737
Died: January 16, 1794
Occupation: Historian
Cite this Page: Citation

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