Edward Gibbon Quotes - Page 4

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• 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

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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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• The savage nations of the globe are the common enemies of civilized society; and we may inquire, with anxious curiosity, whether Europe is still threatened with a repetition of those calamities, which formerly oppressed the arms and institutions of Rome.

  Edward Gibbon

  Rome, Europe, Curiosity

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

  7 Copy quote

• To the University of Oxford I acknowledge no obligation; and she will as cheerfully renounce me for a son, as I am willing to disclaim her for a mother. I spent fourteen months at Magdalen College: they proved the fourteen months the most idle and unprofitable of my whole life.

  Edward Gibbon

  Mother, Son, College

  'Memoirs of My Life' (1796) ch. 2

  16 Copy quote

• But in almost every province of the Roman world, an army of fanatics, without authority and without discipline, invaded the peaceful inhabitants; and the ruin of the fairest structures of antiquity still displays the ravages of those barbarians who alone had time and inclination to execute such laborious destruction.

  Edward Gibbon

  Army, Discipline, History

  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.93, Modern Library

  6 Copy quote

• According to the faith and mercy of his Christian enemies, [Chosroes] sunk without hope into a still deeper abyss [Hell]; and it will not be denied, that tyrants of every age and sect are the best entitled to such infernal abodes.

  Edward Gibbon

  Christian, Tyrants, Enemy

  7 Copy quote

• 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.

  Edward Gibbon

  Loss, Men, Victory

  Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.1695, Delphi Classics

  4 Copy quote

• According to the law of custom, and perhaps of reason, foreign travel completes the education of an English gentleman.

  Edward Gibbon

  Law, Gentleman, Reason

  Edward Gibbon (1826). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.540

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• 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 . . .

  Edward Gibbon

  War, Hero, Blood

  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.1712, Modern Library

  9 Copy quote

• But the wisdom and authority of the legislator are seldom victorious in a contest with the vigilant dexterity of private interest.

  Edward Gibbon

  Dexterity, Authority, Interest

  Edward Gibbon (2016). “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”, p.1156, e-artnow

  11 Copy quote

• The monastic studies have tended, for the most part, to darken, rather than to dispel, the cloud of superstition.

  Edward Gibbon

  Clouds, Superstitions, Study

  Edward Gibbon (1854). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.122

  4 Copy quote

• The difference of language, dress, and manners . . . severs and alienates the nations of the globe.

  Edward Gibbon

  Differences, Dresses, Language

  Edward Gibbon (1869). “The Crusades: A.D. 1095-1261”, p.81

  6 Copy quote

• A philosopher may deplore the eternal discords of the human race, but he will confess, that the desire of spoil is a more rational provocation than the vanity of conquest.

  Edward Gibbon

  Vanity, Race, Desire

  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.714, Modern Library

  18 Copy quote

• [Courage] arises in a great measure from the consciousness of strength . . .

  Edward Gibbon

  Consciousness, Arise

  Edward Gibbon (1855). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.162

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• The elegance of dress, of motion, and of manners gives a lustre to beauty, and inflames the senses through the imagination. Luxurious entertainments, midnight dances, and licentious spectacles, present at once temptation and opportunity to female frailty. From such dangers the unpolished wives of the barbarians were secured by poverty, solitude, and the painful cares of a domestic life.

  Edward Gibbon

  Opportunity, History, Giving

  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.363

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• Every person has two educations, one which he receives from others, and one, more important, which he gives to himself.

  Edward Gibbon

  Two, Giving, Important

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• The style of an author should be the image of his mind, but the choice and command of language is the fruit of exercise.

  Edward Gibbon

  Writing, Exercise, Choices

  Edward Gibbon (1837). “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”, p.92

  14 Copy quote

• Style is the image of character.

  Edward Gibbon

  Fashion, Character, Style

  Edward Gibbon, John Holroyd Earl of Sheffield (1796). “Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esquire: With Memoirs of His Life and Writings”, p.1

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• Julian sincerely abhorred the system of oriental despotism which Diocletian, Constantine, and the patient habits of four score years, had established in the empire. A motive of superstition prevented the execution of the design which Julian had frequently meditated, of relieving his head from the weight of a costly diadem; but he absolutely refused the title of Dominus or Lord, a word which was grown so familiar to the ears of the Romans, that they no longer remembered its servile and humiliating origin.

  Edward Gibbon

  Years, History, Design

  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.648, Modern Library

  10 Copy quote

• Since the primitive times, the wealth of the popes was exposed to envy, their powers to opposition, and their persons to violence.

  Edward Gibbon

  Envy, Violence, Wealth

  Edward Gibbon (1855). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.191

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• In the most rigorous [Roman] laws, a wife was condemned to support a gamester, a drunkard, or a libertine, unless he were guilty of homicide, poison, or sacrilege, in which cases the marriage, as it should seem, might have been dissolved by the hand of the executioner.

  Edward Gibbon

  Law, Hands, Wife

  Edward Gibbon, Henry Hart Milman, Guizot (M., François), Sir William Smith (1862). “The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire”, p.298

  6 Copy quote

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

  Edward Gibbon

  War, Aversion, Sovereign

  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.886, Modern Library

  8 Copy quote

• [It] is the interest as well as duty of a sovereign to maintain the authority of the laws.

  Edward Gibbon

  Law, Sovereign, Authority

  Edward Gibbon (1854). “The history of the decline and fall of the Roman empire”, p.51

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• 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.

  Edward Gibbon

  Order, Punishment, Government

  Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.908, Delphi Classics

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• The active, insatiate principle of self-love can alone supply the arts of life and the wages of industry; and as soon as civil government and exclusive property have been introduced, they become necessary to the existence of the human race.

  Edward Gibbon

  Art, Race, Government

  Edward Gibbon (2015). “Delphi Complete Works of Edward Gibbon (Illustrated)”, p.2063, Delphi Classics

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