Edward Gibbon Quotes - Page 3

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• Such was the unhappy condition of the Roman emperors, that, whatever might be their conduct, their fate was commonly the same. A life of pleasure or virtue, of severity or mildness, of indolence or glory, alike led to an untimely grave; and almost every reign is closed by the same disgusting repetition of treason and murder.

  Edward Gibbon

  Fate, Unhappy, Might

  Edward Gibbon, William George Smith (1857). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.75

  20 Copy quote

• The love of study, a passion which derives fresh vigor from enjoyment, supplies each day, each hour, with a perpetual source of independent and rational pleasure.

  Edward Gibbon

  Passion, Independent, Vigor

  Edward Gibbon (1796). “Miscellaneous Works of Edw. Gibbon: With Memoirs of His Life and Writings, Composed by Himself”, p.194

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• 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.

  Edward Gibbon

  Errors, Race, Long

  Edward Gibbon (2009). “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Edited and Abridged): Abridged Edition”, p.237, Modern Library

  8 Copy quote

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

  Edward Gibbon

  Wisdom, Growth, Doe

  'The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' (1776-88) ch. 71

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

  Edward Gibbon

  Inspirational, Life, Wisdom

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

  104 Copy quote

• 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.

  Edward Gibbon

  Military, War, Character

  Edward Gibbon (1781). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.8

  7 Copy quote

• [Instead] of inquiring why the Roman empire was destroyed, we should rather be surprised that it had subsisted so long.

  Edward Gibbon

  Long, Empires, Inquiring

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

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• Women [in ancient Rome] were condemned to the perpetual tutelage of parents, husbands, or guardians; a sex created to please and obey was never supposed to have attained the age of reason and experience. Such, at least, was the stern and haughty spirit of the ancient law . . .

  Edward Gibbon

  Sex, Husband, Law

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, Guizot (François, M.), William Smith (1871). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.61

  6 Copy quote

• A nation of slaves is always prepared to applaud the clemency of their master who, in the abuse of absolute power, does not proceed to the last extremes of injustice and oppression.

  Edward Gibbon

  Money, Abuse, Democracy

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.567, Wordsworth Editions

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• [The monks'] credulity debased and vitiated the faculties of the mind: they corrupted the evidence of history; and superstition gradually extinguished the hostile light of philosophy and science.

  Edward Gibbon

  Philosophy, Light, Mind

  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.560, Modern Library

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• Their poverty secured their freedom, since our desires and our possessions are the strongest fetters of despotism.

  Edward Gibbon

  Freedom, Desire, Liberty

  Edward Gibbon (1839). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.127

  11 Copy quote

• There is nothing perhaps more adverse to nature and reason than to hold in obedience remote countries and foreign nations, in opposition to their inclination and interest.

  Edward Gibbon

  Country, Reason, Obedience

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, Guizot (François, M.), William Smith (1871). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.425

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• Among the innumerable monuments of architecture constructed by the Romans, how many have escaped the notice of history, how few have resisted the ravages of time and barbarism! And yet even the majestic ruins that are still scattered over Italy and the provinces, would be sufficient to prove that those countries were once the seat of a polite and powerful empire.

  Edward Gibbon

  Country, Powerful, History

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.37, Wordsworth Editions

  19 Copy quote

• The primitive Christians perpetually trod on mystic ground, and their minds were exercised by the habits of believing the most extraordinary events

  Edward Gibbon

  Christian, Believe, Mind

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.264, Wordsworth Editions

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• '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.

  Edward Gibbon

  Gratitude, Believe, Simple

  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.1340, Modern Library

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• In the field of controversy I always pity the moderate party, who stand on the open middle ground exposed to the fire of both sides.

  Edward Gibbon

  Party, Fire, Fields

  Edward Gibbon, J. B. Bury (2013). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: Edited in Seven Volumes with Introduction, Notes, Appendices, and Index”, p.257, Cambridge University Press

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• Ignorant of the arts of luxury, the primitive Romans had improved the science of government and war.

  Edward Gibbon

  Art, War, Government

  Edward Gibbon (1871). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.22

  4 Copy quote

• Religion is a mere question of geography.

  Edward Gibbon

  Geography, Mere

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• The separation of the Arabs from the rest of mankind has accustomed them to confound the ideas of stranger and enemy.

  Edward Gibbon

  Ideas, Enemy, Separation

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.788, Wordsworth Editions

  9 Copy quote

• 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.

  Edward Gibbon

  Exercise, Government, History

  Edward Gibbon (1840). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.32

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• 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

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• In a distant age and climate, the tragic scene of the death of Hosein will awaken the sympathy of the coldest reader.

  Edward Gibbon

  Intellectual, Age, Climate

  Edward Gibbon, M. Guizot (François) (1854). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.529

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• The fierce and partial writers of the times, ascribing all virtue to themselves, and imputing all guilt to their adversaries, have painted the battle of the angels and the demons.

  Edward Gibbon

  Angel, Guilt, Atheism

  Edward Gibbon (1825). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 3: Complete in Eight Volumes”, p.73

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• Yet the arts of Severus cannot be justified by the most ample privileges of state reason. He promised only to betray; he flattered only to ruin; and however he might occasionally bind himself by oaths and treaties, his conscience, obsequious to his interest, always released him from the inconvenient obligation.

  Edward Gibbon

  Art, History, Might

  Edward Gibbon (1998). “Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.100, Wordsworth Editions

  18 Copy quote

• Many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant.

  Edward Gibbon

  Christian, Atheist, Tyrants

  Edward Gibbon (1840). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman Empire”, p.100

  5 Copy quote

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